A white pill sold as morning sickness relief. No pregnancy safety test was ever run

A white pill sold as morning sickness relief. No pregnancy safety test was ever run A single white pill sold in forty-six countries became a silent experiment on pregnant women - and between ten thousand and twenty thousand children were born with devastating limb defects because no one had ever asked whether it was safe in pregnancy. How did a drug prescribed for morning sickness slip through every safety net and rewrite thousands of bodies before anyone connected the dots? In this episode, we tell the story of that drug and the institutions around it, following how a sedative launched in 1957 moved from pharmacy shelves to prescriptions for pregnant women, the flawed investigation that blamed mothers, and the one country that rejected the drug outright - so what turned a marketable tranquilizer into the largest anthropogenic medical disaster in recorded history? Person: Franz Büchner Company: Chemie Grünenthal Brand: Contergan Date: 1957 Affected births: 10,000-20,000 - The drug was first synthesized in 1953 by Ciba and abandoned in 1954 before Grünenthal acquired it. - Contergan was launched in West Germany in 1957 and by the early 1960s was distributed in forty-six countries. - The critical window of fetal vulnerability lasted roughly eight days (approximately day 20 to day 28 of gestation). - Approximately 40% of thalidomide-affected births died at or shortly after birth. - East Germany reviewed the compound and rejected it, and no thalidomide-related limb defects are known to have been recorded there. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].