Are we going to stand by and let these children come into the world? : the impact of the Thalidomide disaster in South Africa, 1960-1977

Thalidomide is in many ways the archetypal drug of our era. Produced in the mid-1950s by German firm Chemie-Grünenthal GmbH, and sold directly by them or by licencees, it was one of a multitude of medications industrially created during the post-war boom in synthetic drugs and aggressively marketed for multiple uses on a global scale. Most notoriously given to pregnant women suffering from morning sickness, without adequate testing for either toxicity or effectiveness, thalidomide was advertised as being ‘completely non-poisonous, completely safe’. Instead, in what became known as the ‘thalidomide scandal’, it caused malformations resulting in at least 10,000 children being born with severe disabilities. Previous research has shown that thalidomide was given out as samples, sold over the counter, or distributed via national health ..