R.I.P. – Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey
Working for the FDA -Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey refused to authorize thalidomide for market! This evening I saw that among the recent deaths listed at Wikipedia I saw the name Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey. I didn’t recognize the name, so I decided to find out about Ms. Kelsey, Frankly I should have known the name, because Ms. Kelsey saved many Americans from major tragedies, when she refused to authorize thalidomide for market use because she had concerns about the drug’s safety! From Wikipedia…..Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey, CM (July 24, 1914 – August 7, 2015) was a Canadian pharmacologist and physician. She was most famous as the reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the drug’s safety.[1] Her concerns proved to be justified when it was proven that thalidomide caused serious birth defects. Kelsey’s career intersected with the passage of laws strengthening FDA oversight of pharmaceuticals….. …..In 1960, Kelsey was hired by the FDA in Washington, D.C. At that time, she “was one of only seven full-time and four young part-time physicians reviewing drugs”[3] for the FDA. One of her first assignments at the FDA was to review an application by Richardson Merrell for the drug thalidomide (under the tradename Kevadon) as a tranquilizer and painkiller with specific indications to prescribe the drug to pregnant women for morning sickness. Even though it had already been approved in Canada and more than 20 European and African countries,[7]…
