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Dark Remedy: The Impact Of Thalidomide And Its Revival As A Vital Medicine Paperback – December 24, 2001

by Trent Stephens (Author),
Rock Brynner (Author)
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Rock Brynner (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 18 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (December 24, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0738205907
  • ISBN-13: 978-0738205908
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThalidomide Reborn
By Rob Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on March 7, 2001
Format: Hardcover
Anyone who could pay attention to newspapers in the 1960s remembers the stories of thalidomide. Thousands of women took this super-safe sedative, or morning sickness suppressant, and found that their children were born with grotesquely stunted limbs like flippers, or perhaps no arms or legs at all. The dismal story of how thalidomide was invented, marketed, and withdrawn is a big part of the fascinating account in _Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and its Revival as a Vital Medicine_ (Perseus Publishing), by Trent Stephens and Rock Brynner, but as the title implies, the story is not all gloom. The initial part of the story is simply shocking, with the German drug manufacturer displaying incompetence and selfishness throughout the product's development, testing, and distribution. When problems emerged, the company did a cover up, hired a detective to keep tabs on the doctors and patients who were complaining, and kept selling the drug.
The United States was a huge potential market for thalidomide. A subsidy of Vick Chemical Company (makers of Vicks VapoRub) was set to release it in the US in 1961. The company was sure it would get quick approval from the Food and Drug Administration, because at the time there was no requirement to show that the drug worked, it was up to the FDA to find any data to show any dangers, and pharmaceutical representatives did favors for FDA officials. The FDA, and the company, did not reckon on young FDA staffer Dr. Frances Kelsey, who was appalled by the sloppiness of the application. The story of the drug company's recklessness is shocking, but Dr. Kelsey's refusal to bow to heavy pressure, from both the company and her superiors in the FDA, is one of the inspiring parts of the book.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsHow the FDA acquired its power in our modern era
By Guy F. Airey on February 20, 2008
Format: Paperback
Dark Remedy by Brynner and Stephens is a rather scary tale of how one person, Dr. Frances Kelsey, may have just saved the people of the United States from a very trajic event in the 1960-61 era. Being a new FDA employee back then, she simply refused to permit its (ie, thalidomide) acceptance for the US (FDA approval) market, and by doing so, prevented one of the worst nightmares that could have occurred in American medical history. Many other countries had already approved the drug for use, and by doing so, suffered consequences most of us are well aware of to this date. For that one fact alone, she certainly deserved the medal given by President Kennedy and many thanks from every American. The book also shows how bullish a pharmaceutical company can be. In 1958, it boldly went through the William Merrill company, so to set up the manufacturing process, as the drug called "Kevadon" back then. We are all very fortunate, that she (Kelsay) had the will and inner guidance not to cave in to all of the pressures of lobbyists of other countries and just say "no." Their approval (other countries, I mean) earlier of this so-called "super safe" sedative caused some of the most grotesque limb malformations imaginable to people-- that totally trusted the medical community at the time. The makers of this product clearly knew the dangers, but in the interest of greed and money, openly chose to ignore the findings. Essentially, doctors and pharmacists were lied to in accepting their literature presented to our FDA. The authors state that metabolism of this product by our bodies generate over 100 byproducts, each capable of doing this or that, and I am not quite sure this is true.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsAwesome Book But Was A Little Disappointed ...
By Knowledge Contagion on July 31, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I found this book to be truly fascinating! I'd read articles and seen documentaries about Thalidomide and was really hoping the authors wouldn't go into the protracted court proceedings (especially in England) - and they didn't! I was surprised that they spent so little space on the actual "Thalidomiders," but unlike a previous reviewer, this didn't make me dislike the book - it actually made me respect the authors more. Many reviewers already detailed what made this book so great, so I'll skip over that. I will reiterate how readable it was; I think this book is to Thalidomide what "Silent Spring" was to ecology.

This book really does start off as a horror story ... It is despicable what Grunenthal's did (and didn't do) and how some of the medical community responded (some babies were swaddled up and the parents discovered their child's deformity when they arrived home from the hospital). I was disappointed that the authors didn't provide what information there might have been on the number of babies who were actually killed by medical staff or negligence (as stated in the documentaries) because I think that this would have made a difference in the number of babies known to have been born with deformities as a result of Thalidomide.

I was astonished to learn that Thalidomide is found in semen and was very disappointed when the authors didn't go into more detail about this. This opened up a number of questions for me: they didn't acknowledge that this could have been responsible for countless other Thalidomide babies; because it affected *fetuses* and not women's eggs, isn't it possible that the Thalidomide altered the DNA in sperm, thus causing mutations that were not teratogenic? I just wish they'd devoted an entire chapter on this.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFascinating

Amazing story

Published 6 months ago by Living room player
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent. Through, thoughtful and understandable.

Published 7 months ago by Shoe Addict
4.0 out of 5 starsInformative, well done, easy read

A very informative book about thalidomide. Written in easy to understand language for the casually medically informed reader (one small section went a bit over my head but authors... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Sharika
5.0 out of 5 starsMust read. 🙀

Great book. I really enjoyed reading it.

Published 18 months ago by Kenny B. Norcross
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Book

Great book would recommend this book to everyone i know. very educational on the subject. will read it again and again.

Published 21 months ago by Mary Lee Sells
4.0 out of 5 starsfantastic account of scientific serendipity

There was enough science and medical history for those who want the technical details but general enough for non scientists to follow this fascinating story

Published 22 months ago by vince yeh
5.0 out of 5 starsPharmaceutical greed and resulting tragedy

This is a very readable book detailing how the world's worst drug tragedy came to be, and what role greed and the dismissal of salient research facts by those with the most to gain... Read more

Published on January 18, 2014 by Wojciech A Krotoski
5.0 out of 5 starsdrugs and birth defects

I would recommend to any one interested in the tragic thalidomide story. This is well written. I wish I had read before. Read more

Published on August 17, 2010 by Godfrey P. Oakley, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 starsthe Complete Story of Thalidomide

A well-researched book that covers both sides of the thalidomide story. First used as a sedative with no restrictions until its effects on unborn infants was known, thalidomide is... Read more

Published on March 19, 2010 by D. Rubel
3.0 out of 5 starsDidn't live up to my expectations

Dark Remedy is definitely not all it's cracked up to be. I agree that it's a disturbing and informative book chronicling the "life" of thalidomide but I have to admit that I found... Read more

Published on October 27, 2009 by Shoko Kendust

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