[DiogenesLamp]

Only in Europe and maybe elsewhere. Frances Kelsey, a Canadian woman who worked at the FDA, denied it's approval, so it was never used by the public in the U.S., but it was in Canada.

Is that true? I always thought it was used in the US. I've seen a lot of people with short and deformed arms that is one of the characteristics of it.

So Canadian medicine was screwing things up even back then.

[nickcarraway]

Is that true? I always thought it was used in the US.

There were 17 in the U.S,. - nine from samples, 8 who got it other countries. (Probably Canada.)

The reason it was never approved in the U.S. is because, Frances Kelsey bravely refused to approve it.

I think the most victims were in Germany. (East Germany never approved it.)

[oldvirginian]

“Is that true? I always thought it was used in the US. I’ve seen a lot of people with short and deformed arms that is one of the characteristics of it.”

Although it was never approved by the FDA thalidomide WAS distributed in the US...by Richardson Merrell as a safer alternative to other sedatives.
“Details emerged over the coming months and in early August 1962, newspapers reported that Richardson Merrell distributed more than 2.5 million doses of thalidomide to more than 1,200 U.S. doctors. Its clinical trial evolved into an unauthorized marketing program.”

https://usthalidomide.org/our-story-thalidomide-babies-us/