Jennifer Vanderbes (Journalist), “Wonder Drug: A Book Talk on the History of Thalidomide” (Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy)

In 1959, a Cincinnati pharmaceutical firm quietly began distributing samples of a new sedative, thalidomide, in the US which had already been causing severe birth abnormalities abroad, under the guise of clinical trials. In Wonder Drug, Jennifer Vanderbes examines government and corporate archives, probed court records, and interviewed key players to tell the story of  the unrecognized victims of an epic scandal and expose the deceptive practices of Big Pharma that continue to endanger lives today.