Thalidomide Was Given to Pregnant Patients Without FDA Approval — and Without Telling Them

In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors gave the drug thalidomide to pregnant patients without telling them, and without FDA approval. NPR reports that the children of those patients now want recognition. The detail that does the work is the double absence: no regulatory clearance, no disclosure. A drug reached pregnant patients through the doctors they trusted, and the people taking it were not told what they were taking.