Thalidomide is a drug first developed by the German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal in the 1950s. The intentions of the drug were similar to paracetamol but were not tested properly by the company, and resulted in birth deformities and a rising number of miscarriages.
The Australian obstetrician William Mcbride, first noticed the pattern between the drug and the miscarriages.
In the United Kingdom, the drug was licensed in 1958, and due to the discovery by Mcbride, was taken off the market by 1961 and after a long campaign by the sunday times newspaper, compensation was recieved by the victims of the drug defects, paid for by Distillers Company Limited.
Today, research is still carried out on the Thalidomide drug, and is becoming more managable towards treating diseases and terminal illnesses such as cancer, but are still undergoing tests.
Other corporations have started to manufacture other analogues of the drug, such as lenalidomide, which is alot more powerful than thalidomite, with less side effects.
In present day, doctors and patience must follow procedure and a number of tests before the drug can be administrated, to avoid damaging effects to the user and unborn child alike.
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