Frances Oldham Kelsey, Ph.D. – A woman who did what was right

This was posted by my brother-in-law, David Kell, in mid-August, right after Frances Kelsey passed away.  Given the topic of the post, I thought it worth re-posting here:

“Frances Oldham Kelsey, Ph.D., died last week. She was born on Vancouver Island, B.C., in 1914; so (at her age) this was not remarkable. What was remarkable was her achievements, in a field and in an era when every possible obstacle and prejudice blocked her progress.

Kevadon was a painkiller already approved and prescribed in some 20 developed countries for treating nausea in pregnant women. The manufacturer, citing the already widespread approvals, submitted their drug for FDA approval in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kelsey was one of only a handful of FDA scientists at the time, and (pardon the pun) smelled a rat. And withheld approval (in the face of sustained and intense political lobbying) until rigorous scientific studies justified approving Kevadon for use during pregnancy. She was courageous, implacable, and, ultimately, proven right.

Because, in the next few months while she stood virtually alone against powerful business and political interests, governments around the world were learning the truth. Mothers who had used Kevadon were giving birth to babies with substantial birth defects, often armless, legless, or even limbless, blindness, etc. Only about 50% of these babies lived. No ultrasounds in those years, so the end of their labor was a mother’s first inkling that a trivial drug they barely remembered taking had stricken their new baby with a lifelong disability–if surviving at all. You may have heard the non-trademarked name for Kevadon: THALIDOMIDE.

This one “woman doctor,” as she would have been called in those days, prevented this appalling disaster from striking hundreds or thousands of US families; other countries across the world paid the price for their uncritical trust of the drug industry.
On August 7, 1962, President Kennedy presented Dr. Kelsey with an award for her work (in just the previous few years) which had prevented an unspeakable tragedy. And she stayed on at the FDA for decades afterwards, protecting the public.

On August 7, 1962, my brother was almost age 2, I was nearly aged 4. Had Dr. Kelsey not done her job, my mother and thousands of other mothers could have been subjected to the worst kind of horrors, in the name of corporate profits.”