Thalidomide Research Papers

In our ever-changing world the race to find the best technological advancements has never been higher. Progress within the medical field has changed drastically in the last 50 years. “Health is driven by the technologies that cure the unhealthy. These technologies need to advance along with an advancing society. In the last five decades new and improved, less expensive, medicine has been produced” (Leonard). Behind all this advanced medicine are the technologies, or creatures, that are used to test and improve the medicine. Animals are used to test the drugs and medicine that are in route to be produced for human use. “The term "Animal Testing" refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products” (Humane Society). There are people who side with, and agree that animal testing improves the lives of humans, and there are individuals who believe the harm this research brings to animals is unreasonable and can be prevented.

cats, and hamsters. Having the knowledge that the drug was tested on many different animals and

Many chemicals are healthy for humans but harmful for animals for example aspirin is used as a painkiller for humans but fatal and painful for specific animals other examples are like Butazolidin (Phenylbutazone), Oraflex Opren (Benoxaprofen) and others…

A little white pill, sold as an over-the-counter drug, lined the shelves of pharmacies across the globe. Originating from the German drug company, Chemie Grütinethal, this pill was advertised to a highly receptive international market and was a success in 1959. Several years later, physicians began to form a link between phocomelia, a birth deformity, and pregnant woman who ingested the German-created drug. That little white pill is known as Thalidomide. Staying in the market for almost six years, Thalidomide changed the lives of mothers and their newborns for the worse making it one of the largest pharmaceutical failures in the course of mankind. Although the horrific effects of distributing Thalidomide in the late 1950s is historically

The same drug that caused thousands of birth defects is now being utilised as a way to help mouth sores in AIDs patients as well as a medicine to help with pancreatic cancer and other diseases (Feller, 2016). In the 1950’s and 60’s thalidomide was a drug used as a sedative that quickly became primarily for pregnant women with bad morning sickness. However, there were soon many birth defects that came from the mothers who were using thalidomide while pregnant (Winerip, 2013). Instead of giving birth to healthy babies, children were being born without ears or with flippers replacing their arms. The connection between thalidomide and the birth defects were not made right away causing the problem to be widespread. Thalidomide was and still is

Thalidomide did not affect all child birth, depending on when it was taken. Thalidomide did not affect all species in the same way.

Grunenthal began clinical trials to test Thalidomide’s effect as an anticonvulsant, anesthetic and spasmolytic. The test results showed it made the test subjects drowsy. In 1956 it was marketed as Grippex, designed to treat influenza. (Lenz 1988) Thalidomide was also tested on people with anxiety and suffering from stress. Grunenthal then remarketed the drug under the name Contergan in 1957 to reduce stress and as a sedative. (Mandal 2015) Although it was known that compounds could cause teratogen effects, it was not yet a law that all drugs must be tested on pregnant women or animals. Scientist at Grunenthal discovered that Thalidomide had similar chemical structures to popular sedatives Diazepam and Barbital. They performed clinical trials to confirm this. At this time extensive testing was not necessary to be performed on new drugs, “thalidomide had passed safety tests performed on animals. In some tests, dosages of over 600 times the normal human dosage had no effect at all on rodents” (BBC, 2014) these tests lead scientists to believe that Thalidomide was safe to use on humans, pregnant women inclusive, due to having an almost non existent toxicity level and the drug was released with only minor side effect warnings. Physicians across Germany recommended Thalidomide to women to treat morning sickness; this advice was wide spread across western Germany and eventually across the 46 countries that sold

From 1958 through 1961 a mild barbiturate wreaked havoc for expectant mothers and their fetuses. The drug was originally marketed in Europe, by a pharmaceutical company named Grunenthal. The, unknown at the time teratogen or placenta passing, drug is called Thalidomide. Its popularity grew quickly because it is nonlethal, even in overdose, and a deadly quantity has yet to be found. Thalidomide is still used today, despite the extraordinary suffering, it has caused. Alas, Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women to help them through pregnancy symptoms, caused thousands of infants to be born with terrible deformities and deficient in countless areas, and has made a life of struggles for the children of Thalidomide.

Thalidomide is a drug that was invented in Germany in the 1950’s. It was originally intended to treat respiratory infections but during testing, it was noted that the drug worked to relieve morning sickness for pregnant women. This new reason allowed the drug to be prescribed to many new patients all over the world. Eventually Thalidomide was discovered to be causing birth defects in all of the pregnant women that were taking it. It caused the fetus to not develop correctly by causing limbs of the body or ears to develop improperly or not develop at all. It also cause spinal cord and digestive system defects as well as problems to the heart and kidneys. Thalidomide stopped being prescribed but not before many children and families were affected worldwide who had taken the drug. It took a couple of years before other countries caught up to realize that thalidomide was causing the birth defects and removed from being an over the counter drug in many countries. It wasn’t until 1961 that it was completely removed after it was confirmed that it was causing birth defects. More than 10000 babies were born with defects and approximately killed 2000 before birth, but fewer than 100 were born here in the U.S.

According to the Washington Post “While Dr. Kelsey stood her ground on Kevadon, infant deaths and deformities were occurring at an alarming rate in places where thalidomide had been sold. The development of seal-like flippers, a condition known as phocomelia that previously affected an estimated 1 in 4 million infants, began to crop up by the dozens in many countries.” The new discover shocked Dr.Kelsey and gave her even more reason to reject Kevadon applications. This new discovery did not keep her from searching further and she soon discovered the the drug had not been tested on any pregnant animals at any point in time. The reasons were stacking up, and the odds were not in favor the drug company. Dr. Kelsey continued her research and “by

Thalidomide, heralded as a wonder drug when it was first released into the market, was meant to alleviate morning sickness, lessen the effects of tumours in cancer patients and ease treatment of Leprosy and HIV/AIDS. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Using animals for research is not reliable in predicting the outcome of new chemicals on the human body system. According to American Anti-Vivisection Society, “Nine out of ten drugs that appear promising in animals studies go on to fail in human clinical trials.” That indicates that almost ninety percent of traditional animal experiments fail in human trials. Although humans are similar to animals, they still do not have the exact genetic make up as animals. American Anti-Vivisection Society claims that, “Even the same species have similar differences that can be found among different genders, breeds, ages and weight ranges, and ethnic backgrounds.” For example, humans react to new products differently because nobody is genetically the same. Some people experience the therapeutic effect of a drug and then others may have an allergic reaction to the drug. Even in the human species researchers see that not all drugs or products produce the same ideal results that are expected. If there were such wide variations of results between the same species why would it be logical to test products intended for human use on animals? This is a question that most advocates for alternative methods to animal testing would ask.

The anatomic, metabolic, and cellular structures in humans are different from those in animals, therefor making animals poor models for humans. Paul Furlong, Professor of Clinical Neuroimaging at Aston University, states that “It is very hard to create an animal model that even equates closely to what we are trying to achieve in a human. In the 1950s, another incident happened. A new sleeping pill that used thalidomide was on the rise. This caused 10,000 babies to be born with severe deformities, and was tested on animals before it had its public release. Later tests on pregnant mice, rats, guinea pigs, cats, and hamsters did not result in birth defects. The drug was yet again put on the shelf, and ended up causing over 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before being pulled from the market, once

What is perhaps most shocking about the use of animals in experiments is not only cruel, but often ineffective. In fact there is only around a 37% success rate in determining a drug’s effect on human. Animals do not get many of the diseases that humans do, such as heart disease; many forms of

THALIDOMIDE was tested on rodents which undergo the drug different to humans and then later