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Health and medicine

Thalidomide

Partly documented

Archival records document marketing, regulatory classification, and withdrawal; classification was not safety certification.

Fact-check

1958 UK marketing and 1961 withdrawal established; NHS classification committee did not test drug safety.

The evidence

Links go to the original records: Hansard, legislation, official guidance and news reports. A before-and-after pair is not always proof of a direct contradiction, so read the originals for exact wording.

Before: the earlier position

After: what changed

What the source documents claim

These are summaries from the original documents behind this archive. They have not been checked word for word. Where they differ from the fact-check above, the fact-check is the more reliable account.

Thalidomide Licensing for Morning Sickness (1958–1961)

Document A, case 08

Original advice
In April 1958, UK health authorities approved thalidomide (marketed as Distaval) as a completely safe, non-toxic sedative and morning sickness treatment for pregnant women.
How it was framed
The Ministry of Health and the Standing Joint Committee on the Classification of Proprietary Preparations accepted manufacturer laboratory toxicity studies showing no lethal dose in rodents, certifying it for NHS prescription.
Later change
In November 1961, Distaval was urgently withdrawn from the UK market after clinical case reports proved it caused severe limb and organ birth defects (phocomelia) in thousands of babies.

Register entry 08. Last reviewed: 12 November 2026.

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