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Too late for that, they already had a test with 40000 participants. No one showed any serious symptoms.

Yet.

...Thalidomide was released in the late 1950's as a nonaddictive, nonbarbiturate sedative by the German pharmaceutical company, Chemie‐Grunenthal (Fig. ​(Fig.1).1). Thalidomide was very effective and quickly discovered to also be an effective anti‐emetic and used to treat morning sickness in pregnant women. Thalidomide was marketed and distributed in 46 countries around the world using different names. For example, the drug was known as Distaval in the UK and Australia, but was called Softenon in Europe and Contergan in Germany (Vargesson, 2009, 2013). Thalidomide became one of the world's largest selling drugs, and was marketed heavily and advertised as completely safe (Vargesson, 2009; Fig. ​Fig.1B)1B) right up until it was eventually banned in November, 1961. Indeed, sample packets of the drug were given out to physicians to distribute freely to patients suffering from morning sickness (Fig. ​(Fig.1B).1B). Precisely how many women were given the drug will never be known.

Soon after thalidomide's release, reports surfaced of patients developing peripheral neuropathy after taking the drug. Reports of occurrences of severe birth defects affecting multiple body systems were also coming to light, that initially were not linked to, or were denied to be due to thalidomide. It was not until 1961 that thalidomide was confirmed by two independent clinicians, Lenz in Germany and McBride in Australia, to be the cause of the largest man‐made medical disaster in history (McBride, 1961; Lenz, 1962) with huge numbers (over 10,000) of severe birth defects in children. In addition, there were reports of increased miscarriage rates during this period (Lenz, 1988; Vargesson, 2009, 2013; McCredie, 2009; Stephens, 2009).