Thalidomide Approved!

This article is about thalidomide, and how it has received approval from the FDA.

Thalidomide was used by pregnant women in the 1950's and early 1960's to help with morning sickness. However, many babies whose mothers took thalidomine were born with horrible birth defects. These include shortened and missing limbs. Since then, thalidomide has had a bad reputation.

New research has been put into thalidomide and it appears that it could help treat people with skin lesions and multiple myeloma. Studies show that thalidomide is effective with slowing the growth of myeloma cells and prevent them from attaching to bone marrow cells.

In addition, thalidomide has shown potential in treating inflammatory diseases, HIV related mouth/throat ulcers, and cancer. More research is needed for approval to help these disorders.

Thalidomide has a few minor side effects that include drowsiness, dizziness and rashes. Researchers are working hard to make thalidomide analogs, drugs which are chemically similar. Hopefully thalidomide can lose it's bad rep and become a beneficial drug.