Ralph spends the whole hour with Jennifer Vanderbes, author of “Wonder Drug: The Secret History Of Thalidomide In America And Its Hidden Victims.” Thalidomide was never “commercially available” in the U.S., but American doctors handed out samples to patients even though no one could prove the drug was safe. Or could definitively say what the drug did. And by the time thalidomide landed at the FDA for approval, whistleblowers, journalists, doctors, and patients in Germany, Australia, and the UK were sounding the alarm about its shocking side effects.
Jennifer Vanderbes is doing great work championing the cause of people affected by Thalidomide. There’s no surprise that drug makers have attempted to minimize their responsibility to those who have suffered as a result of this drug. It’s heartening to learn that people have come together to address what the drug did to them, and continues to do to them, and have sought a just response from the fantastically wealthy drug manufacturers.
A useful discussion and overview of the Thalidomide scandals, how many years later? Unfortunately the Nader organizations "Best Pills, Worst Pills" and Public Citizen has been asleep at the wheel during the pandemic. As such the complete lack of intellectual rigor on the larger scandals currently surrounding all the Pharma products, especially the covid injections is especially troubling! Industry capture of the agencies, especially the CDC, NIH and FDC is certain. Why not get off your duffs and interview actual doctors, scientists and researchers who have been seeking to expose the Pharma frauds for years? There are many substacks devoted to this topic with heavy weight peer reviewed studies backing up their claims.
I really appreciated the thorough research and excellent articulation of the subject matter. As the conversation neared toward the end and the topic of repurposing dangerous drug Thalidomide became personal. My husband died from Multiple Myeloma living only15 months once he was accurately diagnosed.
As his caregiver I managed ordering of his specialty pharmaceuticals taken at home. Imagine my shock when I was setting up his first prescription for Revlimid (lenalidomide) (Celgene / Bristol Meyers Squibb) and the representative on the phone said “your co-pay is $5100, how would you like to pay for that?” Surely I didn’t hear that right, so I asked them to repeat that. This was for 21 pills, a 1 month supply.
The retail value is said to be around $20,000 monthly, minus your insurance benefit. If Revlimid is no longer effective then you may be prescribed Pomalyst for $30,000 monthly for 21 pills, same pharmaceutical manufacturer. FYI medicare will only pay for infusions, that is intravenous liquid pharmaceuticals, so naturally big pharma makes sure their ‘standard of treatment drugs’ are only in Pill form. Another side note for some future researcher, is post 9/11 in NYC there is a high incidence of Multiple Myeloma and MGUS (monogamopathy of unknown significance) a non symptomatic, detectable blood abnormality where Multiple Myeloma begins, also found a high incidence of MGUS in First Responders and others exposed to the toxicity of 9/11 dust. My husband had never been ill prior to his Multiple Myeloma diagnosis and 10 months after his initial diagnosis I was diagnosed with MGUS -- suggesting environmental exposure. New York’s big cancer treatment center Memorial Sloan Kettering conducted a study of First Responders who have a high incidence of MGUS — though there is no journalistic reporting on this that I am aware of. The treatment and system was a terrible nightmare for both of us.
I remember seeing a young man that had no arm but did have a hand at his shoulder, my aunt, who was a nurse, told me he was a thalidomide survivor. That. Was in the
It is a shame that drugs today continue to cause side effects that are harmful and the alarm goes out after sudden deaths or serious complications.. I hope the Thalidomide sufferers will be successful. It is about time for pharmaceutical companies to pay for the harm they have caused. I am a DES daughter .
Jennifer Vanderbes is doing great work championing the cause of people affected by Thalidomide. There’s no surprise that drug makers have attempted to minimize their responsibility to those who have suffered as a result of this drug. It’s heartening to learn that people have come together to address what the drug did to them, and continues to do to them, and have sought a just response from the fantastically wealthy drug manufacturers.
Jennifer Vanderbes shining the light for us
A useful discussion and overview of the Thalidomide scandals, how many years later? Unfortunately the Nader organizations "Best Pills, Worst Pills" and Public Citizen has been asleep at the wheel during the pandemic. As such the complete lack of intellectual rigor on the larger scandals currently surrounding all the Pharma products, especially the covid injections is especially troubling! Industry capture of the agencies, especially the CDC, NIH and FDC is certain. Why not get off your duffs and interview actual doctors, scientists and researchers who have been seeking to expose the Pharma frauds for years? There are many substacks devoted to this topic with heavy weight peer reviewed studies backing up their claims.
I really appreciated the thorough research and excellent articulation of the subject matter. As the conversation neared toward the end and the topic of repurposing dangerous drug Thalidomide became personal. My husband died from Multiple Myeloma living only15 months once he was accurately diagnosed.
As his caregiver I managed ordering of his specialty pharmaceuticals taken at home. Imagine my shock when I was setting up his first prescription for Revlimid (lenalidomide) (Celgene / Bristol Meyers Squibb) and the representative on the phone said “your co-pay is $5100, how would you like to pay for that?” Surely I didn’t hear that right, so I asked them to repeat that. This was for 21 pills, a 1 month supply.
The retail value is said to be around $20,000 monthly, minus your insurance benefit. If Revlimid is no longer effective then you may be prescribed Pomalyst for $30,000 monthly for 21 pills, same pharmaceutical manufacturer. FYI medicare will only pay for infusions, that is intravenous liquid pharmaceuticals, so naturally big pharma makes sure their ‘standard of treatment drugs’ are only in Pill form. Another side note for some future researcher, is post 9/11 in NYC there is a high incidence of Multiple Myeloma and MGUS (monogamopathy of unknown significance) a non symptomatic, detectable blood abnormality where Multiple Myeloma begins, also found a high incidence of MGUS in First Responders and others exposed to the toxicity of 9/11 dust. My husband had never been ill prior to his Multiple Myeloma diagnosis and 10 months after his initial diagnosis I was diagnosed with MGUS -- suggesting environmental exposure. New York’s big cancer treatment center Memorial Sloan Kettering conducted a study of First Responders who have a high incidence of MGUS — though there is no journalistic reporting on this that I am aware of. The treatment and system was a terrible nightmare for both of us.
Never too late to SHARE this "Wonder Drug".
Procrastinator anonymous.
We have been fighting some of the worst legislation against transgender youth in the country recently here in our Kentucky schools and I was trying to follow the links in a study done by True North Research about how the legislation was getting funded. I found this information in True North Research article. (A GUIDE TO THE DARK-MONEY, ANTI-PUBLIC-SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE), and from an article in the Center for Media Democracy. What I have written is bad paraphrasing from my notations, but I wanted to send to you because of the connection to Thalidomide and Heather Higgins. The main political operative for Independent Women's Voice/Forum IWV/F is Heather Higgins, heir to the Vicks VapoRub fortune. The family foundation was the sole distributor of Thalidomide in the US and Canada which caused several birth defects. Higgins took credit for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh because Susan Collins of ME and FOX used IWF’s talking points to support him. The IWV/F also took credit for the voters electing Ron Johnson and Donald Trump in WI due to their messaging on the courts there. Independent Women’s Forum is the 501©(3) nonprofit created out of Independent Women’s Voice in 2004. In addition to telling concerned mothers that vaping was not harmful while taking money from the biggest e-cigarette manufacturer, they were also telling them not to worry about phthalates and BPA in baby bottles in their “Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Plastics” campaign while taking money from the plastics industry. Rush Limbaugh and Foster Freiss are both known to have funded IWF/V during the 2010 Massachusetts senate race. IWV ran robocall campaigns amplifying the hateful rhetoric by Missouri senate candidate Todd Akin, who said that a woman’s body would just shut down a pregnancy resulting from rape if “it was a legitimate rape”. IWV spent almost 177K amplifying Richard Mourdock (since convicted in the triple homicides of his wife, son, and housekeeper) who said that a pregnancy resulting from rape was a “gift from God”.
I could not /was not able to listen to the audio. ??? Thank you.
I remember seeing a young man that had no arm but did have a hand at his shoulder, my aunt, who was a nurse, told me he was a thalidomide survivor. That. Was in the
It is a shame that drugs today continue to cause side effects that are harmful and the alarm goes out after sudden deaths or serious complications.. I hope the Thalidomide sufferers will be successful. It is about time for pharmaceutical companies to pay for the harm they have caused. I am a DES daughter .
Jennifer Vanderbes shining the light for us