Bitter Elixir/苦涩的灵药

In the mid-1950s, a German pharmaceutical company with a strong Nazi history inadvertently developed a drug called thalidomide. After shoddy, flawed, and even data-fabricated experiments, this "risk-free panacea" was marketed as a sleep aid, sedative, and remedy for morning sickness in pregnant women. Within a few years, thalidomide was licensed to pharmaceutical companies in nearly 50 countries worldwide for production and sales. Soon, "one of the greatest catastrophes in medical history" began: many pregnant women who had only taken one thalidomide tablet gave birth to "seal babies" with limbs resembling fish fins or seal claws.

20世纪50年代中期，一家有着深厚纳粹历史背景的德国制药公司无意间研发出了一种名叫沙利度胺的药物。在经过粗劣马虎、错漏百出甚至捏造数据的实验后，这种“没有风险的万灵药”被作为助眠、镇静以及缓解孕妇晨吐反应的药物上市。短短几年间，沙利度胺还被授权给全球近50个国家的制药公司生产和销售。很快，“医学史上最大的一场浩劫”拉开了帷幕：很多孕妇仅服用过1片沙利度胺，却产下了四肢像鱼鳍或者海豹爪子的“海豹儿”。