LAZARO – 21

THALIDOMIDE BABIES 1MBIO4

For over sixty years, in the year 1956 on Christmas day, a baby girl was born in Germany with
missing ears. She was the daughter of an employee of a German drug company Chemie Grunenthal,
which developed Thalidomide. On the very first day of October 1957, Thalidomide an over-the-counter
drug was introduced in the public, it was known to be a sedative and an hypnotic which can cure morning
sickness (Powell, 1999). Few years after the success of the drug, there has been a wide spread of news of
newborn babies with severe birth defects; has deformed limbs, missing ears, missing or shrunken eyes,
brain damage, or even deformities of the face (Mellin, 1962).

In 1961, two doctors Widukind Lenz and William Mcbride noticed that the mothers of these
babies had all taken the drug. Thalidomide was banned in 1962. 2 years after, in Jerusalem, there was a
patient with severe leprosy who experiences severe pain and cannot sleep, he was treated by Dr. Jacob
Sheskin with Thalidomide. Dr. D’Amato discovered a potential for thalidomide to treat cancerous tumors.
Now, it is known to cure tuberculosis, Crohn’s disease, sclerosis, symptoms of HIV and AIDS, cancerous
tumors, and primary treatment for myeloma. In brazil, it used to treat Hansen’s disease or leprosy. As of
now thalidomide children continue to be born as 100 since 2005 by one estimate.

Scientists discovered that there are two versions of thalidomide molecule, an R enantiomer and an
S enantiomer. R enantiomer helped with morning sickness and the S enantiomer caused the severe birth
defects (Teo, 2004). Thalidomide is made up of three connected rings of carbon and nitrogen atoms, it is
known as a chiral molecule. Chiral molecule as being (R) right-handed or (S) left-handed. Different
versions of chiral molecules are called enantiomers, made up of the same parts but arranged differently.
Two enantiomers are reflection of each other (Smith, 2009). After the discovery that the only S version of
thalidomide caused birth defects, they isolated the R enantiomer so they could continue using it to treat
morning sickness. But the R enantiomer can also switch to the S version while inside the human body
(Hoglund, 1997). Even if they isolated 100% pure R thalidomide, it still wouldn’t be safe for pregnant
women.

Chemie Grunenthal handed out samples everywhere even to their employees back then.
Grunenthal didn’t apologize to their victims until 2012. 50 years after the tragedy, CEO Herald Stock
gave a public apology to the victims and their families, and for the company’s silence for over 50 years.
References:

Hoglund, P., Eriksson, T., Bjorkman, Sven (1997). A double-blind study of Sedative effects of
Thalidomide enantiomers in Humans. Journal of Pharmacokinetics and
Biopharmaceutics, Vol. 26, No. 24, 363-381
Mellin, G., Katzenstein, M. (1962). Neuropathy to Embryopathy with Case Reports of Congenital
Anomalies, The New England Journal of Medicine, 1184-1192
Powell, R.J (1999). Thalidomide Current Uses. Biodrugs, 409-414.
Smith, S. (2009). Chiral Toxicology: It’s the same thing…Only different. Toxicological Studies, 4-22
Teo, S. K., Colbourn, W. A., Tracewell, W. G., Kook, K. A., Stirling, D. I., Jaworsky, M. S., . . . Laskin, O. L.
(2004). Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Clin Pharmacokinet, 311-326.
- Rock Brynner (author)
- Lack of scientific studies
- They said at that time: you could not kill a rat no matter how much thalidomide that rat ate
- folk amelia, Greek shorter arms or flipper like,