The British company that distributed and sold the drug thalidomide knew almost six months before it was pulled from the market that there were credible claims it caused terrible deformities and the deaths of infants, a new book reveals.
If Distillers had heeded warnings it received in June and July 1961, as many as 1,000 babies would not have been born with severe injuries such as missing limbs, and another 1,000 would not have died shortly after birth, the book says.
Silent Shock, by lawyer Michael Magazanik, appears to clear up a long-running dispute about when the company knew thalidomide – widely given to women as a cure for morning sickness between 1958 and 1961 – was exceptionally dangerous.
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