The news this morning reported that a new campaign has started to generate more money to support thalidomide victims in Britain. Thalidomide was a drug used for morning sickness which proved to be the cause of babies being born with limbs missing or reduced in size (teratogenicity). The original compensation settlement from Distillers is no longer proving to be enough for the victims, as they get older and the greater strain on their affected limbs and joints is taking its toll.
Thalidomide was very much in use when I was born in 1961, and I have met people my own age who were affected by it. My mother says that she was offered medication for morning sickness, and wonders if her refusal to take it was a lucky escape. I once took a funeral, where the son of the deceased was my age, had my first name, but had no arms or legs. It certainly made me reflect on what might have been.
When I studied chemistry, I remember a pharmacology lecturer telling us that one of the problems with the drug was that animal testing didn't produce conclusive results. One problem is that rabbit pregnancy is much shorter than human, so the 'window' of time when the drug might cause problems is very short, and may explain why it wasn't spotted. Other reports indicated that only certain species showed the effects, such as New Zealand white rabbits.
Added to that, thalidomide has two enantiomers or optical isomers (
bear with me here!) i.e. two forms which are distinct mirror images of each other. One causes the deformities, whereas the other suppresses sickness. Thalidomide included both (a
racemic mixture), and to complicate things further they can apparently convert from one to the other inside the body. In biological systems this can often be an issue, as the 'fit' of one molecule into another is a vital part of how those systems work. to put it crudely, a 'right handed' version won't fit a 'left-handed' slot.
The two enantiomers of thalidomide.
Controversially, thalidomide
has been making a comeback (presumably with stern warnings about avoiding use in pregnancy). It has some beneficial effects in treating leprosy, certain cancers and macular degeneration - a condition where eyesight deteriorates. Perhaps the substance that caused so much difficulty will yet prove to relieve a great deal of suffering.
The two enantiomers of thalidomide.
4 comments:
“Perhaps the substance that caused so much difficulty will yet prove to relieve a great deal of suffering.”
Think twice!
It is impossible to be and not to be at the same time and in the same respect, said Aristotle in His Metaphysics. This is the Principle of Non-Contradiction.
Thanks to thalidomide, this thalidomide monster has both keratoconus and cataract in BOTH eyes. Cornea in left eye has been replaced in 1988 but is being rejected since 2004. The graft is still in the eye. Cataract has been operated in left eye in 2006. Right eye is still open. The ophthalmologists refuse to tell the monster what’s the problem in his right eye. Monster does not know why they ask him to instill drops in that eye.
Still, ophthalmologists argue that thalidomide would be useful in ophthalmology.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Heinous Histories Collide
Lasik Eye Surgery - A Refractive Eye Surgical Procedure
http://fnk-nyrpe4.blogspot.com/2009/03/heinous-histories-collide-lasik-eye.html
Will it be argued that using thalidomide on pregnant girls is using thalidomide in a different respect than using it on non-pregnant humans?
“Human testing” is the title of my blog page quoted after my signature here.
For your consideration …
1.
From The Sunday Times
February 8, 2009
Thalidomide 'was created by the Nazis'
The damaging drug may have been developed as an antidote to nerve gas
Daniel Foggo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683577.ece
2.
Thalidomide was definitely known in the year 1938 and [its] defects were noted in Phoenix, AZ (USA) in a medical journal that year. It was known as a cure for Hanson’s Disease and made by [Richardson]-Merrill Co. in [Cincinnati], OH (USA). I don’t know what action was taken, but a young female doctor named Frances Oldham Kersey (or Kelsey) recognized its dangers. Theodore, Princeton, WV/USA
(reaction under From The Times April 4, 2008 Thalidomide: 50 years on victims unite to seek more compensation Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article3671815.ece
Kelsey was the lady who in 1960 only joined the US of A Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
Once there, she further delayed thalidomide’s approval (thalidomide was marketed since 1957)
and was given a Presidential award by US of A president Kennedy for that delay.
Wikipedia says
that Kelsey is credited SINCE NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT with her interest in teratogens - that is, drugs that cause congenital malformations,
that 1938 was the date of the creation of the FDA,
and that Kelsey managed to be appointed there in 1960
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_Kelsey
Thalidomide was marketed since 1957.
Kelsey was only appointed in the FDA in 1960.
How can she get (all) the credit for having ‘saved’ the US of A from it?
3.
It would be all about (female, I suppose) intuition.
The Thalidomide Disaster
Friday, Aug. 10, 1962
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873697,00.html
Thanks to the INTUITION of the Food and Drug Administration's Dr. Frances Kelsey,* the U.S. has got off lightly because the drug was never licensed for general use
+
Her first major assignment was to pass on the application of Cincinnati's William S. Merrell Co. for a license to market thalidomide in the U.S. under the trade name Kevadon.* Along with the application came a sheaf of reports on years of animal testing and human use of the drug in Europe. There was no hint that the drug had any undesirable side effects, and Merrell pressed hard for quick approval.
+
Though Dr. Kelsey had kept Kevadon off the U.S. market for more than a year, this did not mean that no U.S. doctors were using the drug
Ivo:
Kevadon (thalidomide) was marketed in Europe since 1957
Kelsey came only to the FDA after the Aptil-May 1960 Duesseldorf Cocgress
Merrell Co. waited so long to file its application in US of A.
Merrell Co. OR Richardson-Merrill Co.?
We don't even know who filed the application in 1960.
4.
AS I QUOTED ABOVE
Thalidomide was definitely known in the year 1938 and [its] defects were noted in Phoenix, AZ (USA) in a medical journal that year. It was known as a cure for Hanson’s Disease and made by [Richardson]-Merrill Co. in [Cincinnati], OH (USA). I don’t know what action was taken, but a young female doctor named Frances Oldham Kersey (or Kelsey) recognized its dangers. Theodore, Princeton, WV/USA
(reaction under From The Times April 4, 2008 Thalidomide: 50 years on victims unite to seek more compensation Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article3671815.ece
Right, 1937 was ALSO the Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster
BUT look whose name is appearing:
The company started selling and distributing the medication in September 1937. By October 11, the American Medical Association received a report of several deaths caused by the medication. The Food and Drug Administration was notified, and an extensive search was conducted to recover the distributed medicine. FRANCES OLDHAM KELSEY assisted on a research project, which verified that the excipient DEG was responsible for the fatal adverse effects. At least 100 deaths were blamed on the medication.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_Sulfanilamide
5.
Look how Kelsey is lying
From Tragedy to Triumph:
The Approval of Thalidomide”
by Kristina E. Lutz
http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/351/Lutz.pdf.
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:mC0RQoulUxYJ:leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/351/Lutz.pdf+kevadon+Vick+Chemical&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
SNIP
It was under these auspices that on September 12, 1960, Dr. Kelsey was introduced to Richardson-Merrell’s thalidomide product, Kevadon.
26
At the time of the application’s submission there had not been any reports of problems pertaining to thalidomide.
27
Although it would be later proved that the first thalidomide baby was born on Christmas day, 1956 in Stolberg, Germany,
28
European doctors had yet to make the connection between the horrible birth defects and thalidomide
IVO: what about the Duesseldorf 30 April – 1 May 1960 neurological congress?
Chronik des Conterganfalls
Tragödie - Katastrophe - Skandal?
http://www.wdr.de/themen/gesundheit/pharmazie/contergan/chronik.jhtml?rubrikenstyle=contergan
30. April/1. Mai 1960:
Auf einem Neurologen-Kongress in Düsseldorf berichtet der Neurologe Ralf Voss über die Nervenschädigungen, die seinen
Beobachtungen zufolge durch Thalidomid verursacht werden. Die Forschungsabteilung von Grünenthal versucht daraufhin, die Nervenschädigungen an Ratten zu reproduzieren - ohne Erfolg. Grünenthal-Forschungsleiter Mückter schließt daraus, dass es sich um besondere Situationen handelt, für die Contergan nur selten als Ursache infrage kommt.
Fraus omnia corrumpit, fraud negates everything
And in 1997, Kelsey advocated the re-introduction of thalidomide
http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/1997/0926/none/0016/index.html
Ausgerechnet Frances Kelsey, die vor 37 Jahren das Contergan-Verbot durchsetzte, begründete nun die Wiedereinführung des Produkts in den Vereinigten Staaten.
Is this a joke?
The first drug [Kelsey] was asked to evaluate [at the FDA] was thalidomide,
http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Hy-Kr/Kelsey-Frances-Kathleen-Oldham.html
In 1960 the Kelseys moved to Washington, D.C., where Frances was offered a job at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Her job was to evaluate applications from drug companies that wished to market new drugs. She had sixty days to evaluate each application. The first drug she was asked to evaluate was thalidomide, a sedative prescribed to pregnant women for relief from morning sickness.
Ivo Cerckel
ivocerckel@siquijor.ws
http://bphouse.com/honest_money/human-testing/
Ivo
Thank you for that very thorough response. The only thing I would want to say back is
1) can a chemical substance ever be intrinsically evil, or is the evil only ever in the way it is used? Your testimony implies that this substance which has undoubtedly caused much misery is somehow 'cursed'.
2) Many drugs which have beneficial clinical effects can also be toxic and damaging if wrongly administered or given to people in certain conditions (including pregnancy) For example, chemotherapy drugs can relive suffering and even cure, but are also very toxic and can kill unborn children.
I don't think thalidomide is any different in those respets. However, I do have a problem with those who developed the drug now profiting from it, given its history.
If (and only if) it could be proven it was a safe treatment for, say, cancer, I think any profits for the industry ought to go to support people who have been victims of its misuse.
However, I am far from advocating its return, merely noting the news and asking the question.
Mike,
Every mother knows that her child should not play with a toy the child does not understand.
The mechanism of the biological action of thalidomide is still being debated, with current literature that suggests that it intercalates into DNA in G-C rich regions,
says Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide
DISCLAIMER: RIGHT, I MUST STILL TRY TO FINETUNE MY APLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING QUOTE IN MEDICAL MATTERS:
In its popular form, pragmatism elevate[s] “what works” to the sole standard of judgment but remain[s] vague about the ends and people for which things are supposed to work. Applied to questions of truth finding, pragmatism stresse[s] the “consensus of the experts,” which is not too bad a criterion as long as expertise itself is not defined on merely pragmatic grounds. However, the pragmatic mindset quickly move[s] to such a definition, especially in the fields of ethics, politics and economics. This [leads]
to a sociological definition of truth—truth is what conforms to the ruling opinion—which nicely fitted the meritocratic and democratic ethos of the age
(Frank van Dun, "Dead End Street Blues," in “ Libertarian Papers”, Vol. I , Art No 8 (2009), p. 14, http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2009/lp-1-8.pdf )
Contrast pragmatism to your
If (and only if) it could be proven it was a SAFE treatment for, say, cancer […]
Thank you for thinking with me.
As William James said in his book “Pragmatism”: Ideas become true just as far as they help us to get into satisfactory relations with other parts of our experience.
(quoted by Antony Flew and Stephen Priest, “A Dictionary of Philosophy”, Pan Books (Macmillan), 1984, 2nd ed., verbo ‘pragmatism”)
The term pragmatism was first introduced in 1878 by C.S. Pierce: Said he: “Consider what effects which might CONCEIBABLY (Ivo’s emphasis) have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our consciousness to have. Then our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object.” (Flew and Priest, op. cit., loc. cit.)
Contrast this to John Lennon:
Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for …
(no that’s not from Flew and Priest)
Again, thank you for thinking with me.
Perhaps this will allow me to write something sensible (not nonsensical) here
http://fnk-nyrpe4.blogspot.com/2009/03/heinous-histories-collide-lasik-eye.html
in a few minutes.
Ivo
ivocerckel@siquijor.ws
Human nature is so constituted that some individuals who have inside knowledge about the effects of thalidomide will ‘always’ deliberately and unnoticeably cause the serious harm thalidomide can ‘so easily’ cause.
They do that precisely because the damage is so serious to the mother and to the child
and because they can do that so easily and without being noticed.
It may be that ‘in clinical trials’, thalidomide is shown to be effective against many things.
But ‘in real life’, it is given to unsuspecting girls.
Or will a utilitarian argue that this should be weighed against the lives which can be saved through thalidomide?
Perhaps, the utilitarian should be reminded of the surprising ignorance among younger doctors about its dangers, especially in countries where it was never an issue.
Utilitarianism is the ethical doctrine that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility in maximizing happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome—the ends justify the means, says Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism
How to reconcile this with John Lennon’s” Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for …”?
Here’s how
From The Sunday Times
February 8, 2009
Thalidomide 'was created by the Nazis'
The damaging drug may have been developed as an antidote to nerve gas
Daniel Foggo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683577.ece
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
At least three children have been born in Brazil in the past three years after their mothers took [thalidomide] while pregnant. There have also been reports of thalidomide defects from Mexico, India, and Africa.
(Thalidomide: a curse and a blessing?
By Clare Murphy
Health reporter, BBC News
Thursday, 3 April 2008 09:26 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7326588.stm
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