Opportunities Missed, Warnings Ignored: Re-discovering the History of Drug Safety in Great Britain following the Thalidomide Disaster 1961

Authors

  • Stuart Anderson Centre for History in Public Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1647-6336_14_3

Keywords:

Thalidomide, safety, Britain, history, drugs

Abstract

Following the thalidomide disaster1961 many accounts of pre-thalidomide drug safety history appeared. Some identified events which represented missed opportunities or ignored warning signs. This paper reviews three assertions made in these accounts; that an opportunity to introduce a spontaneous reporting system for suspected adverse drug reactions in 1893 was missed; that concerns about dangers of drugs in pregnancy identified in 1904 were ignored; and that a proposal to establish a drug regulatory body made in 1914 was abandoned. The paper concludes that even if all had been acted upon it is unlikely that the thalidomide disaster could have been entirely avoided.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1647-6336_14_3

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Published

2016-02-01

How to Cite

Anderson, S. (2016). Opportunities Missed, Warnings Ignored: Re-discovering the History of Drug Safety in Great Britain following the Thalidomide Disaster 1961. Debater a Europa, (14), 49-72. https://doi.org/10.14195/1647-6336_14_3

Issue

No. 14 (2016): Europe, Pharmacy, Medicine

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows sharing the work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in Antropologia Portuguesa journal.