Kefauver Alleges Inadequate Tests Of Thalidomide

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29890, 2 August 1962, Page 13

Kefauver Alleges Inadequate Tests Of Thalidomide

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) , WASHINGTON, July 31. The baby-deforming effects of thalidomide would have been discovered if the drug had been tested on rabbits or guinea pigs before it was distributed for human use, Senator Estes Kefauver (Democrat, Tennessee), said today, United Press International reported.

The "horror” could have been averted, he said. tf scientific studies had been made with animals larger than rodents He said an examination >f the United States Food and Drug Administration’s file on the drug showed the manufacturer limited the anima: tests to rats and mice Senator Kefauver wrote in a letetr to four Senate Democrats supporting his Drug Industry Reform Bill that the FDA's thalidomide files convinced him of the need for strengthening amendments to his legislation . "Seal Limbs” Senator Kefauver said in his letter that suspicions that the drug could caus? ‘‘seal limbs” in infants would have been verified by testing m rabbits before distribution to selected doctors for clinical testing in humans. He said studies made on rabbits for the British seller of thalidomide brought ou‘ the drug's body-deforming effects More than half thilitters of- rabbits which were given thalidomide developed deformities. the studies showed. No deformities developed in baby rabbits born of mothers which did not ge: the drug, according to the study by Dr G. F Somers Senator Hubert Humphrey (Democrat, Minnesota) said 1200 United States doctors had got supplies of thalidomide. the tranquiliser drug associated with the birtb of deformed babies. In a statement prepared for delivery to the opening session of the Government Operations Sub-committee, Senator Humphrey Mid that it

was by sheer luck that information about the drug's effects had become known He said Dr. Frances Delsey, of the Food and Drug Administration—she would be called as a witness—had only accidentally turned up a letter to the editor in one of the world's 4000 medical journals concerning the drug's effects. Senator Humphrey, said the sub-committee aimed to trace the history of “an international tragedy resulting from what was believed to be a harmless sleeping pill ' Dr Helen Taussig, of Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore—famed as the “blue baby doctor"—predicted in the magazine "Scientific American” yesterday, that the number of babies crippled by thalidomide might reach 7000 by the northern autumn—6ooo in West Germanv and 1000 elsewhere. “The one-third who are so deformed that they die. may be the luckier ones." she commented. Meanwhile. Senator Joseph Clark (Democrat, Pennsylvania) said in a statement that he would join the Democratic chairman of the Senat' Anti-Monopoly Sub-com-mittee. Senator Estes Kefauver, in sponsoring a drug bill amendment requiring adequate premarketing tests on animals “At the present time, human beings including pregnant women—are being used as guinea pigs." he said

Three Canadian Provincial Governments promised yesterday to help with the care of drug-deformed babies. The Premier of Ontario

(Mr John Robarts) promised wide-ranging provincial aid to parents of babies born deformed as a result of prenatal use of the drug, thalidomide. the Canadian Press reported At least 40 deformed babies are known to have been born in Canada to mothers who took thalidomide to ease nausea during pregnancy In Saskatchewan where no thalidomide babies have been reported. the province's Health Minister <Mr W G Davies) said his Governmen' would care for the babies if they were listed as dependents with the medical care insurance commission, which administers the province's new medical health scheme Both mother and baby would be cared for. In Edmonton, the Health Minister of Alberta (Dr J Donovan Ross' said his province would provide th-' same care for babies born deformed as a result of thalidomide as was given to other multiple-handicapped children Wanting Abortion In Phoenix. Arizona. Mrs Sherri Finkbine is planning to leave the State for an abortion, but just when and where she will go for the operation is being kept secret. the Associated Press reported Her schoolteacher husband today would say only: “Wc have decided to seek help in a more favourable legal climate” The 30-year-old star of a television children’s programme fears birth of a malformed child because she took tranquillisers containing thalidomide.