How Thalidomide Works

The deforming effects of thalidomide on unborn children have been known for almost seven years, and the drug's manufacturers are even now on trial in Alsdorf, Germany (TIME, Sept. 6). Still, no one has been able to explain just what it was in the tranquilizer-sleeping pill that produced seal-flipper limbs in children. Last week a German-born investigator with a grandfatherly manner was finally able to pinpoint to the American Chemical Society how thalidomide did its damage.

Dr. Heinz M. Wuest, 76, supposedly retired but still active in his laboratory as a consultant to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, pointed out that the thalidomide molecule contains both a form of glutamic acid and a form of phthalic acid. Glutamic acid is a common substance, whose derivatives are used as flavor additives for meat and beer. Phthalic acid is an un common drug component moderately irritating to the skin. But, said Wuest, in thalidomide the structural combination of glutamic and phthalic acids is most unusual. Experiments undertaken in three laboratories have shown that this combination causes deformities, such as seal limbs, in fetuses.

The thalidomide tragedy could not have been foreseen because the combination effect had not been observed previously, or even suspected. Wuest insisted, however, that "the tools are now available" to prevent the repetition of such a disaster, if drug researchers take care to test their compounds in animals such as the rhesus monkey.

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