QUESTIONS A COMMUNICATORS NIGHTMARE The Thalidomide Tragedy By

QUESTIONS: A COMMUNICATORS NIGHTMARE. . . The Thalidomide Tragedy By Deena Champaneria

What is communication? • A two-way process by which information i. e. in the form of an idea, image, emotion or • • • - piece of text is exchanged. This information can be conveyed through different mediums i. e. speaking or writing. There are many reasons to why we communicate i. e. in a business it may be used to maintain the workplace hierarchy but putting communication in context with this presentation The purpose of scientific communication is to allow for scientific advancement & for scientific information to be integrated into the lives of everyday individuals.

How can it be represented? Schramm, W. (1954) In 1948, Shannon a mathematician and Weaver a scientist wrote an article titled “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. They described a model designed to demonstrate effective communication between the source and the receiver. Outlining factors such as noise, which may disrupt the message.

The Thalidomide Tragedy • In the late 1950 s, a German (Fintel, Samaras and Carias, 2009) pharmaceutical company called Chemie Grünenthal marketed a sedative named Thalidomide. • It was used to be used in the treatment of nausea in pregnant women. • The drug was given through physicians who gave thalidomide as an off-label prescription for morning sickness. • Within a few years this “wonder drug” had gone global and approximately 10, 000 children were born with phocomelia which lead to its ban in most countries in 1961.

What went wrong? The mechanism by which thalidomide produces malformations is not clearly known. However, there is strong evidence to suggest the drug inhibits angiogenesis. Thalidomide was taken by expecting mothers suffering from morning sickness in weeks 5 to 9. Between this timeframe the limbs of the fetus are still forming and the blood vessels are rapidly expanding to accommodate the growing limbs. However, taking the drug stops the growth of the limbs resulting in shortened/ deformed limbs. (Thalidomide. ca, 1999)

How did it go wrong? • Pharmaceutically, thalidomide was marketed as a racemic mixture of enantiomers. (+)(R)-thalidomide - the sedative, and (-)(S)-thalidomide - the teratogen. • (-)(S)-thalidomide inhibited angiogenesis. • You could say why wasn’t an (+)(R)- thalidomide made on its own – • As the human liver has enzymes which are capable of turning (+)(R)-thalidomide into (-)(S)-thalidomide. Hoffmeier, K. (2007).

How did Chemie Grünenthal address the problem? • Sender does not have (Lingham, 2000) sufficient knowledge of the subject. i. e. even after thousands of babies were born with defects, clinical experiments were still failing. Researchers failed to produce these human malformations in trials. Up until a very rare breed of New Zealand rabbit and eventually some monkeys began to produce deformed offspring. However, the doses given for these results were up to 300 times greater than ever given to any human.

How did Chemie Grünenthal address the problem? • The sender has their own goals Sender filters and manipulates the information, ignoring the facts, making it more favorable to the receiver. i. e. Chemie Grünenthal threatened physicians who had reported thalidomide was dangerous and increased their advertising campaigns when reports of birth defects first began to appear. (Bonkersinstitute. org, 1961)

What questions did researchers ask Chemie Grünenthal? • Senders ignorance to acceptance i. e. even after there was a correlation between thalidomide sales and malformations the distribution of thalidomide continued. (Sjöström and Nilsson, 1972)

How has drug testing changed following the tragedy? • Response feedback loop • Following the disaster strict guidelines have been put into place by the Food and Drug Administration • It takes on average 12 years from devlopement to market entry. • Before a drug goes onto clinical testing, drugs undergo a three years of laboratory testing. (Final Project, 2013)

References • Abpi. org. uk, (n. d. ). Developing new medicines. [online] Available at: http: //www. abpi. org. uk/industry-info/new • • • medicines/Pages/default. aspx [Accessed 17 Feb. 2015]. Bonkersinstitute. org, (1961). Bonkers Institute: thalidomide suitable for infants, outstandingly safe. [online] Available at: http: //www. bonkersinstitute. org/medshow/thalidomide. html [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015]. Business. Dictionary. com, (2015). What is communication? definition and meaning. [online] Available at: http: //www. businessdictionary. com/definition/communication. html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2015]. Communication Theory, (2015). Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication. [online] Available at: http: //communicationtheory. org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2015]. Final Project, (2013). A Day In The Work Life: Lisa Zimmerman, VP Clinical Operations at POZEN. [online] Available at: https: //wernerfinalpozenproject. wordpress. com/2013/05/16/a-day-in-the-work-life-lisa-zimmerman-vp-clinical-operations-at -pozen/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015]. Fintel, B. , Samaras, A. and Carias, E. (2009). The Thalidomide Tragedy: Lessons for Drug Safety and Regulation | Helix Magazine. [online] Helix. northwestern. edu. Available at: https: //helix. northwestern. edu/article/thalidomide-tragedy-lessonsdrug-safety-and-regulation [Accessed 16 Feb. 2015]. Hoffmeier, K. (2007). File: Thalidomide-enantiomers. png - Wikimedia Commons. [online] Commons. wikimedia. org. Available at: http: //commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File: Thalidomide-enantiomers. png [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015]. Lingham, A. (2000). The First Appearance Of Thalidomide. [online] Chm. bris. ac. uk. Available at: http: //www. chm. bris. ac. uk/motm/thalidomide/first. html [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015]. Nguyen, L. , He, , H. and Pham-Huy, C. (2006). Chiral Drugs: An Overview. Int J Biomed Sci, 2(2), pp. 85 -100. Schramm, W. (1954) Procedures and effects of mass media. In N. B. Henry (Ed. ), Mass media in education, (pp. 113138). Sjostrom, H. and Nilsson, R. (1972). Thalidomide and the power of the drug companies. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pages 24 - 105 Thalidomide. ca, (1999). Recognition of Thalidomide Defects - Thalidomide. [online] Available at: http: //www. thalidomide. ca/recognition-of-thalidomide-defects/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2015].