PEDIATRICS Vol. 32 No. 6 December 1963, pp. 953-955
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PRIMATES, DRUGS AND FETAL SAFETY

J. F. LUCEY M.D., F.A.A.P.1

1 University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont

IT WAS WELL KNOWN to teratologists at least, prior to the thalidomide disaster, that congenital anomalies could be produced in animals by a wide variety of therapeutically useful substances (thyroxine, vitamin A, caffein, salicylates, cortisone, insulin, penicillin, and streptomycin). Very little public attention was paid to these data. The teratologists remained quiet and well aware of the many pitfalls involved in interpreting such studies.

When the thalidomide disaster struck there was an understandable stampede back to the study of the teratogenic effects of drugs in animals. We now find ourselves in an apparently bottomless pit confronted with studies indicating that in some animals, at some time, under certain conditions, any drug with pharmacologic action is capable of causing anomalies.