Join us on Wednesday, October 23, as historian Cheryl Krasnick Warsh discusses her recent biography of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey, and Kelsey’s pioneering battle against the life-threatening drug thalidomide.
The event took place online only on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, 12 pm-1 pm EST. Watch the program here:
In the late 1950s, a German company called Chemie Grünenthal claimed discovery of a new wonder drug: a sedative called thalidomide. Rushed to market in nations around the world, Kelsey, recently hired by the FDA, was more cautious. Carefully reviewing data and withstanding enormous pressure from pharmaceutical lobbyists for two years, Kelsey ultimately discovered the drug’s harms when prescribed to pregnant women: babies who arrived stillborn or who suffered from severe deformities including improperly developed organs and missing or misshapen limbs. The world was horrified to discover the drug’s effects, and elevated Kelsey as a pharmacological hero. Kelsey’s meticulous research was celebrated in the media, but also spurred Congress to make dramatic amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, reshaping the landscape of the nation’s pharmaceutical regulation.
Warsh’s biography, the first deep reading of Kelsey as a woman of science, makes extensive use of the Manuscript Division’s Frances Oldham Kelsey Papers, but also relies on oral history interviews of Kelsey, her family, and colleagues. Warsh explores Kelsey’s popular elevation as a “good mother of science” and her lifetime commitment to preventing another thalidomide tragedy.
The panel will be moderated by historian Josh Levy and reference librarian Loretta Deaver, who will briefly highlight items from the Manuscript Division’s Frances Oldham Kelsey Papers. They will discuss Kelsey and the thalidomide tragedy, Kelsey’s place within the larger landscape of women in science, and Professor Warsh’s research process. Join us to reflect on the history of health and medicine, gender, and the legacy of Kelsey’s battle against thalidomide six decades later.
Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].
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Comments
The government gave Kelsey an award so they could say it was never here the drug Thalidomide it was the biggest cover up in USA history . Fact should be told and quit the cover up the U.S. Government and FDA knew the drug was being given out as free samples because the V.A. hospitals and the government ran mental institotions where also giving thalidomide out to it’s patient.