Decades after FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey stopped thalidomide from going on the market in the U.S., the legacy of the drug persists
. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today., a special season from “Lost Women of Science.” It’s about Frances Oldham Kelsey, the doctor who said no to the thalidomide.
It was only when the FDA launched its official investigation that the agency finally dug into how far thalidomide had spread. And at first, it seemed like the U.S. really had dodged a bullet. On August 7, 1962, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare sent out a press release. A pretty optimistic one.
In the end, the FDA’s official count was this: 17. Seventeen babies born in the U.S., who were hurt by thalidomide. In half these cases, the drug came from overseas. Two were stillborn. One died shortly after birth. Leaving just six recognized, living thalidomide survivors in the country. Six. But the FDA was wrong.Katie Hafner:
And yet, this is a group of people who don’t give up easily. And seeing them in action in D.C. only reinforces that impression.There’s three items we want. We want recognition, uh, we want assessment to make sure who is and who isn't.And we want a support package to help us live our lives with dignity and independence.Jose Martynov Galvez Calora is the president of the USA Thalidomide Survivors.We are in our late 50s, 60s, and early 70s.
And if you read the transcript, you can tell that some of these senators Frances and her boss are talking to are absolutely gobsmacked by what they’re hearing.At one point, the question of patient consent comes up. Something we take for granted: you know, that patients in clinical trials should agree to what’s happening to them. They’re being questioned by a Republican Senator from New York named Jacob Javits.
And together, these addressed some of the biggest problems that came up in these hearings. Some really important, let me add, shockingly obvious rules, rules that, had they been in place in 1960, the cascade of collateral damage from thalidomide could have been avoided. But to get a better sense of how far we have—or haven’t come—since the 1960s, we contacted Christina Jewett, a New York Times reporter, who covers the FDA. And Christina says there are people doing some really important work at the FDA to make sure drugs really are as safe as possible. It’s not like Frances Kelsey was the last good one.The FDA people I've sort of gotten to know, and former FDA people, I mean, they are all in for the public service mission.
Widukind Lenz continued to work on behalf of survivors and died in 1995, respected as both a physician and a humanitarian.And what about the corporate entities of this saga? Let’s start with the company that set all these events in motion: Chemie Grünenthal. In 1968, seven Grünenthal executives were put on trial. The charges were serious: intent to commit bodily harm as well as involuntary manslaughter.
And what about the survivors themselves? Well, as we know, many of them are around today. Most are in their early 60s now, and they want justice, they want recognition, and they want to be seen.One of the things that survivors have been told to do in their whole life, and I wasn't raised like this, so it blew my mind, was when you're in a family photo, like a group shot, hide your bad arm. Turn, so your bad side is away from the film.
But she also deserves this multi-episode shout-out, we think, because she represents another group of people who are, if not forgotten these days, often reviled: public servants.
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