Sperimentazioni d’altri tempi

Le radici della tragedia talidomide sono profonde e articolate. Le domande da porsi sono tante e le risposte non sempre lineari. Il talidomide potrebbe essere l’ultimo crimine di guerra della Germania nazista? Quali sono stati i test in laboratorio e i test sugli esseri umani che hanno portato il farmaco in commercio in soli tre anni? E soprattutto: questa tragedia si sarebbe potuta evitare, con le conoscenze dell’epoca?

 

Bibliografia

Stephens, Trent; Brynner, Rock. Dark Remedy: The Impact Of Thalidomide And Its Revival As A Vital Medicine (p.8). Basic Books

Williams, R. The Nazis and Thalidomide: The Worst Drug Scandal of All Time. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/nazis-and-thalidomide-worst-drug-scandal-all-time-64655.

Evans, H. Thalidomide: How Men Who Blighted Lives of Thousands Evaded Justice. The Guardian. November 14, 2014.

Stone, J. From the Holocaust to Thalidomide: A Nazi Legacy. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/molecules-to-medicine/from-the-holocaust-to-thalidomide-a-nazi-legacy/.

Thalidomide: The active substance in Contergan, and its consequences. https://www.thalidomide-tragedy.com/en/thalidomide-the-active-substance-in-contergan-and-its-consequences .

Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime, di David Morris, Jacqui Morris. Documentario, Gran Bretagna, 2014

Per approfondire: Johnson, Martin; Stokes, Raymond G.; Arndt, Tobias. The Thalidomide Catastrophe: How it happened, who was responsible and why the search for justice continues after more than six decades. Onwards and Upwards, 2018.

López-Muñoz, F.; García-García, P.; Alamo, C. The Pharmaceutical Industry and the German National Socialist Regime: I.G. Farben and Pharmacological Research. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 2009, 34 (1), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2710.2008.00972.x.

Somers, G. F. Pharmacological Properties Of Thalidomide (Α-Phthalimido Glutarimide), A New Sedative Hypnotic Drug. British Journal of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy 1960, 15 (1), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.1960.tb01217.x.

Somers G. F. (1962), Thalidomide and congenital abnormalities, in The Lancet, v. 279, pp. 912-913

Sjöström, H.; Nilsson, R. Thalidomide and the Power of the Drug Companies; A Penguin special; Penguin: Harmondsworth, 1972. 

Shuster, E., 1997. Fifty years later: the significance of the Nuremberg Code. New England Journal of Medicine, 337(20), pp.1436-1440.Bhatt, A. Evolution of Clinical Research: A History Before and Beyond James Lind. Perspect Clin Res 2010, 1 (1), 6–10