Causes |

"A Bitter Pill"

"By the mid-1950s, 14 pharmaceutical companies were marketing thalidomide in 46 countries under at least 37 different trade names. "- UK Science Museum, 2019


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The popularity of Thalidomide can largely be attributed to its marketing. Thalidomide was sold under a number of different brand names. In 1958, the United Kingdom Distillers Company (Biochemicals) Ltd. distributed Thalidomide under the brand names Distaval, Tensival, Valgraine and Asmaval.  The images below are Thalidomide advertisements from the 1950s.

 William S. Merrel company

 William S. Merrel company

 William S. Merrel company

The Conversation 

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Welcome Collection

British Medical Journal

British Medical Journal 

Unethical Marketing

Thalidomdide distributors began unethically marketing and promoting the medication. It was consistantly marketed as being 'safe', and having little to no side effects. There was little testing done to verify these claims. At the time, there were no requirements for companies to complete and fulfill testing protocols. The regulation that was enforced was simple and flawed. 

“Distaval can be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child.” - The Distillers Company (Biochemicals) Ltd, 2020

Photograph of a die-cut advertisement issued by The Distillers Company (Biochemicals) Limited for the sedatives Distaval and Distaval Forte, circa 1958, resting on a brown paper textured background. The advertisement is a rectangular blue shape with a 'v' cut out of the top. On the front in black and white text of varying sizes are the words, "Safe Sedation 'DISTAVAL' 25mg thalidomide per tablet. Tube of 24 and bottles of 100 and 500. Basic cost to NHS of 12 tablets from dispensing pack of 100 - 1s. 0d. (P. Tax extra). Non-barbituric sedative and hypnotic. No known toxicity and free from untoward side-effects."

Die-cut advertisement,  Distillers Company (Biochemicals) ,

Trends of environmental causes in reproductive research, in Germany and the United States, Science 

Denial

As more and more deformities were recorded, doctors and patients blamed them on other causes, including living near nuclear power plants, drinking alcohol while pregnant, and unsuccessful at-home abortions. They denied Thalidomide having correlation with deformities. 

“The pediatrician Karl Beck alleged in a newspaper article in May 1958 that nuclear tests were responsible for the disabilities.”                -Grunenthal, 2023

1959 

Grunenthal received reports of nerve damage (polyneuritis) in patients, prompting their application for perscription status in Germany in 1961. This would allow them to continue distributing the drug, with a prescription consumers would be allerted of the side effects before taking them.

The image to the right depics a graph of Thalidomide cases in Germany before and after 1961. After people were allerted of the side effects, the number of cases dropped. 

Monthly incidence in Germany of thalidomide cases, Open Book Publishers 

Dr. William McBride, left, Dr. Widukind Lenz, right, New York Times

Suspicions

Two doctors simultaneously conducted research on Thalidomide. Each had suspicians on its effects on a developing fetus. In 1961, the scientists made independant observations linking Thalidomide to congentical malformations.  

"McBride was a junior obstetrician and gynaecologist in Sydney when he noticed a rise in the number of babies born with unusual birth defects" -Daily Telegraph, 2018


The FDA

In 1960 the pharmaceutical company, Richardson-Merrell, applied to sell Kevadon, a Thalidomide product, in the U.S. That application landed on the desk of FDA employee, Frances Kelsey. She was hired as a physician and pharmacist at the FDA in 1960. Kelsey requested more data from the company because of the side effects shown prior in Germany. Despite persistent badgering by Richardson-Merrell, Kelsey kept Thalidomide off of the American market.

CBC interview Frances Kelsey, 1962