Thalidomide was marketed as an anti-nausea drug for pregnant women in the 1950s, but caused birth defects including shortened or absent limbs, blindness, deafness or malformed internal organs. Decades on, those who survived are still impacted. The birth defect crisis led to greater medical oversight worldwide, including the creation of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration. Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a formal apology. It's something Lisa McManus had been campaigning for f

You’ve heard of the thalidomide tragedy, the morning sickness medication that caused serious birth defects, but the actual chemistry behind why it was so devastating? That’s a mind-blowing story most people don’t know. Thalidomide revealed two game-changing discoveries that transformed medicine forever: First, that a drug taken by mouth could actually cross through to the baby and cause harm – something doctors didn’t know before. Second, she exposed the huge importance of something called chira