Thalidomide and Taxol Lessons Learned from Two Drugs

Thalidomide and Taxol Lessons Learned from Two Drugs 

Thalidomide (see the structure below) was synthesized and marketed by a German company in 1957 as an anti-nausea agent for pregnant women as well as a sedative. It was sold in more than 20 countries by 1960, the year before the German company discovered that it was associated with seriously deformed babies and pulled it from the market. In 1960, an American company applied to market thalidomide. The case was reviewed by Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914- ) of the FDA. Despite pressure from the company, Kelsey did not feel that the safety of the drug had been fully established. When news of thalidomide babies started to appear in 1961, it became clear that Kelsey s principled stand had saved the United States from a disaster. The company s U.S. application was withdrawn in 1962. 

Pauling won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for his activism and on August 5, 1963, a ban on testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, space, and underwater was signed in Moscow. 

During the late 1960s companies in the United States, Europe, and Russia explored the attractive-sounding idea of supersonic transport aircraft ( SSTs, see the photograph). Since SSTs would fly near the altitude of the ozone layer, there was concern about their impact on this vital protective shield. Initially, the concern was that water vapor from fuel combustion by SSTs would be split into reactive species that could decompose ozone and disrupt the balance. Paul Crutzen (1933- ), a Dutch citizen studying at Oxford, discovered that the major ozone decomposition mechanism would, in fact, involve oxides of nitrogen ( NOj ) rather than water. Specifically, he discovered that species such as nitric oxide (NO) could play a catalytic role  

The young Crutzen published this vital study in 1970. At this time Harold Johnston 

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