This is the story of a tragedy that could have been prevented and hopefully won't be repeated. The drug Thalidomide is back in use thirty-six years after causing one of the largest disasters in pharmaceutical history. It's being used today to treat leprosy and cancer. In the early 1960's Thalidomide was a modern pill to cure all. It was advertised as a tranquilizer safe for even pregnant women.

But the little blue pill had a dark side that was eventually revealed. As many as twelve thousand children were born around the world between 1959 and 1962 deformed by a little pill their mother took during pregnancy. They were born without arms and legs with flippers instead of feet or hands. There were 115 Thalidomide babies in Canada, countless others so deformed they were stillborn or miscarried during pregnancy.

The German drug company which created the pill failed to conduct the proper scientific tests before unleashing the drug on the public. The company knew of the side effects in time to have prevented many of the deformities. But it chose to continue selling this very profitable drug using lies and corruption. On Nov 26, 1961 the manufacturer of Thalidomide was forced to remove the drug from the market in Germany. But Thalidomide stayed on sale in Canada for over three months longer.

Canada's record on Thalidomide is far from clean. Canadian authorities were slow to remove the drug from the market because of a close relationship with the drug companies which resulted in a lack of critical analysis. When the alarm bells started sounding there was virtually no communication between Canadian government scientists and their counterparts in Europe and the U.S.

After the tragedy happened the Canadian government failed to help parents of the Thalidomide children when they needed it most. The Canadian medical community didn't know how to respond to the children's deformities and wasted years experimenting on artificial limbs. And the Canadian legal system failed the families when it came time to seek compensation from the drug companies. The story of Thalidomide is a prescription for disaster.