Download Questions: A communicators nightmare

QUESTIONS: A COMMUNICATORS
NIGHTMARE...
The Thalidomide Tragedy
By Deena Champaneria
What is communication?
• A two-way process by which information i.e. in the form of an idea, image, emotion or
•
•
•
-
piece of text is exchanged.
This information can be conveyed through different mediums i.e. speaking or writing.
There are many reasons to why we communicate i.e. in a business it may be used to
maintain the workplace hierarchy but putting communication in context with this
presentation
The purpose of scientific communication is to allow for
scientific advancement & for
scientific information to be integrated into the lives of everyday individuals.
How can it be represented?
Schramm, W. (1954)
In 1948, Shannon a mathematician and Weaver a scientist wrote an article
titled “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. They described a model
designed to demonstrate effective communication between the source and
the receiver. Outlining factors such as noise, which may disrupt the
message.
The Thalidomide Tragedy
• In the late 1950s, a German
(Fintel, Samaras and Carias, 2009)
pharmaceutical company called
Chemie Grünenthal marketed a
sedative named Thalidomide.
• It was used to be used in the
treatment of nausea in pregnant
women.
• The drug was given through
physicians who gave thalidomide
as an off-label prescription for
morning sickness.
• Within a few years this “wonder
drug” had gone global and
approximately 10,000 children
were born with phocomelia which
lead to its ban in most countries in
1961.
What went wrong?
The mechanism by which thalidomide
produces malformations is not clearly
known.
However, there is strong evidence to
suggest the drug inhibits angiogenesis.
Thalidomide was taken by expecting
mothers suffering from morning sickness
in weeks 5 to 9. Between this timeframe
the limbs of the fetus are still forming and
the blood vessels are rapidly expanding
to accommodate the growing limbs.
However, taking the drug stops the
growth of the limbs resulting in
shortened/ deformed limbs.
(Thalidomide.ca, 1999)
How did it go wrong?
• Pharmaceutically, thalidomide was
marketed as a racemic mixture of
enantiomers. (+)(R)-thalidomide - the
sedative, and (-)(S)-thalidomide - the
teratogen.
• (-)(S)-thalidomide inhibited angiogenesis.
• You could say why wasn’t an (+)(R)-
thalidomide made on its own –
• As the human liver has enzymes which
are capable of turning (+)(R)-thalidomide
into (-)(S)-thalidomide.
Hoffmeier, K. (2007).
How did Chemie Grünenthal address the problem?
• Sender does not have
(Lingham, 2000)
sufficient knowledge of the
subject.
i.e. even after thousands of
babies were born with
defects, clinical experiments
were still failing. Researchers
failed to produce these
human malformations in
trials.
Up until a very rare breed of
New Zealand rabbit and
eventually some monkeys
began to produce deformed
offspring. However, the doses
given for these results were
up to 300 times greater than
ever given to any human.
How did Chemie Grünenthal address the problem?
• The sender has their own
goals
Sender filters and manipulates
the information, ignoring the
facts, making it more favorable
to the receiver.
i.e. Chemie Grünenthal
threatened physicians who had
reported thalidomide was
dangerous and increased their
advertising campaigns when
reports of birth defects first
began to appear.
(Bonkersinstitute.org, 1961)
What questions did researchers ask Chemie Grünenthal?
• Senders ignorance to acceptance
i.e. even after there was a correlation
between thalidomide sales and
malformations the distribution of
thalidomide continued.
(Sjöström and Nilsson, 1972)
How has drug testing changed following the tragedy?
• Response feedback loop
• Following the disaster strict guidelines have been put into place
by the Food and Drug Administration
• It takes on average 12 years from devlopement to market entry.
• Before a drug goes onto clinical testing, drugs undergo a three
years of laboratory testing.
(Final Project, 2013)
References
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Abpi.org.uk, (n.d.). Developing new medicines. [online] Available at: http://www.abpi.org.uk/industry-info/newmedicines/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 17 Feb. 2015].
Bonkersinstitute.org, (1961). Bonkers Institute: thalidomide suitable for infants, outstandingly safe. [online] Available at:
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/thalidomide.html [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].
BusinessDictionary.com, (2015). What is communication? definition and meaning. [online] Available at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communication.html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2015].
Communication Theory, (2015). Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication. [online] Available at:
http://communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2015].
Final Project, (2013). A Day In The Work Life: Lisa Zimmerman, VP Clinical Operations at POZEN. [online] Available at:
https://wernerfinalpozenproject.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/a-day-in-the-work-life-lisa-zimmerman-vp-clinical-operationsat-pozen/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].
Fintel, B., Samaras, A. and Carias, E. (2009). The Thalidomide Tragedy: Lessons for Drug Safety and Regulation | Helix
Magazine. [online] Helix.northwestern.edu. Available at: https://helix.northwestern.edu/article/thalidomide-tragedylessons-drug-safety-and-regulation [Accessed 16 Feb. 2015].
Hoffmeier, K. (2007). File:Thalidomide-enantiomers.png - Wikimedia Commons. [online] Commons.wikimedia.org.
Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thalidomide-enantiomers.png [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015].
Lingham, A. (2000). The First Appearance Of Thalidomide. [online] Chm.bris.ac.uk. Available at:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/thalidomide/first.html [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015].
Nguyen, L., He,, H. and Pham-Huy, C. (2006). Chiral Drugs: An Overview. Int J Biomed Sci, 2(2), pp.85-100.
Schramm, W. (1954) Procedures and effects of mass media. In N. B. Henry (Ed.), Mass media in education, (pp. 113138).
Sjostrom, H. and Nilsson, R. (1972). Thalidomide and the power of the drug companies. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pages
24- 105
Thalidomide.ca, (1999). Recognition of Thalidomide Defects - Thalidomide. [online] Available at:
http://www.thalidomide.ca/recognition-of-thalidomide-defects/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2015].