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New Concerns About Thalidomide

Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Address reprint requests to: Beau M. Ances, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Neurology, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104; E-mail: bances{at}mail.med.upenn.edu.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved thalidomide for the treatment of the painful symptoms of erythema nodosum leprosum. This most recent FDA decision is a marked reversal to its previous rejection of this drug in the 1960s. The initial rejection by the FDA in the 1960s spared countless American children as thalidomide was shown to cause birth defects and miscarriages worldwide. The FDA’s reputation as one of the finest consumer safety authorities was strengthened because of this decision. The recent approval of thalidomide by the FDA, with accompanying strict guidelines and monitoring procedures, has not only brought forth potential benefits, but also created new potential problems.

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