BBC - Thalidomide The 50 Year Fight (2014)

Documentary telling the little known story of a father's battle for justice against one of the UK's largest corporations.

In the 1960s, the Thalidomide scandal shocked the world and devastated families. Some victims were left to die, while others were shut away from the world. The fight for compensation saw the government and drug-company silence the press, forcing campaigners to use covert and sometimes illegal ways of keeping their battle in the public eye.

Fifty years on from the tragedy, victims, their families and those intimately involved in the campaign, talk about their ten year battle through the courts and how society has treated them through the years.

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Snippet from Wikipedia: Thalidomide

Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is an oral medication used to treat a number of cancers (e.g., multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and many skin disorders (e.g., complications of leprosy such as skin lesions). Thalidomide has been used to treat conditions associated with HIV: aphthous ulcers, HIV-associated wasting syndrome, diarrhea, and Kaposi's sarcoma, but increases in HIV viral load have been reported.

Common side effects include sleepiness, rash, and dizziness. Severe side effects include tumor lysis syndrome, blood clots, and peripheral neuropathy. Thalidomide is a known human teratogen and carries an extremely high risk of severe, life-threatening birth defects if administered during pregnancy. It causes skeletal deformities such as amelia (absence of legs and/or arms), absence of bones, and phocomelia (malformation of the limbs). A single dose of thalidomide, regardless of dosage, is enough to cause teratogenic effects.

Thalidomide was first marketed in 1957 in West Germany, where it was available over the counter. When first released, thalidomide was promoted for anxiety, trouble sleeping, "tension", and morning sickness. While it was initially thought to be safe in pregnancy, concerns regarding birth defects arose, resulting in its removal from the market in Europe in 1961.

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