Ways of globalization.The international distribution and control of drugs containing Thalidomide

• Applicant: Dr. Ludger Wimmelbücker
• Subject Area: History of Science ; Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 251152024

The drug, Thalidomide, is commonly perceived as the outstanding example for the inadequate control of side effects and the point of departure for the development of recent drug regulation. Despite its global dimension, the history of drugs containing Thalidomide is frequently captured in national perspectives, so that the whole story appears as the sum of those national histories documented by journalistic or academic publications.This project covers three dimensions of the wider history of Thalidomide between 1955 and 1965: (1) the international marketing and distribution, (2) the distribution of the teratogenic damages, (3) the direct reactions regarding the taking off the market and control of drugs containing Thalidomide.The main objective of this study is to analyse the transnational structures of the pharmaceutical market around 1960 from the perspective of a specific drug trajectory. It examines the temporal development and the spatial patterns of the teratogenic damages, the coverage of information about the teratogenicity, and the reactions of relevant actors in various countries. For the first time, it reconstructs the most significant aspects of the early history of drugs containing Thalidomide, which remains to be an important point of reference in drug regulation.Thus, it shows that the so-called drug scandals of the 1950s are already to be conceived as global phenomena.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants