Hey! You should check out Elixir Sulfanimide! It prevents infections, but it's available over the counter. So easy! And it's from a Massengill, an established pharma company, so you can trust it!
So actually you can't buy elixir sulfanimide anymore. Because it was poisonous. It resulted in more than 100 deaths in 1937. This was before the FD&C Act, requiring safety tests. The founder of Massengill refused to take responsibility for the results: "We have been supplying a legitimate professional demand and not once could have foreseen the unlooked-for results. I do not feel that there was any responsibility on our part." It should be noted that there was a sulfanimide craze on at the time, as the first commercial antibiotic, so there was much money to be made.
One woman wrote to President Roosevelt, about her dead daughter: "The first time I ever had occasion to call in a doctor for [Joan] and she was given Elixir of Sulfanilamide. All that is left to us is the caring for her little grave. Even the memory of her is mixed with sorrow for we can see her little body tossing to and fro and hear that little voice screaming with pain and it seems as though it would drive me insane. ... It is my plea that you will take steps to prevent such sales of drugs that will take little lives and leave such suffering behind and such a bleak outlook on the future as I have tonight."
Massengill paid a minimum fine and continued on until it was acquired in 1971.
I don't mind that we have set up an agency to make sure that medical products and devices are safe to use and do what they say they are going to do. It's far more efficient than having to do it individually. And there's always, evidently, people who won't, because they trust their doctor or the brand. And, being medical products and devices, sometimes those people or their loved ones die.
So actually you can't buy elixir sulfanimide anymore. Because it was poisonous. It resulted in more than 100 deaths in 1937. This was before the FD&C Act, requiring safety tests. The founder of Massengill refused to take responsibility for the results: "We have been supplying a legitimate professional demand and not once could have foreseen the unlooked-for results. I do not feel that there was any responsibility on our part." It should be noted that there was a sulfanimide craze on at the time, as the first commercial antibiotic, so there was much money to be made.
One woman wrote to President Roosevelt, about her dead daughter: "The first time I ever had occasion to call in a doctor for [Joan] and she was given Elixir of Sulfanilamide. All that is left to us is the caring for her little grave. Even the memory of her is mixed with sorrow for we can see her little body tossing to and fro and hear that little voice screaming with pain and it seems as though it would drive me insane. ... It is my plea that you will take steps to prevent such sales of drugs that will take little lives and leave such suffering behind and such a bleak outlook on the future as I have tonight."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_sulfanilamide
Massengill paid a minimum fine and continued on until it was acquired in 1971.
I don't mind that we have set up an agency to make sure that medical products and devices are safe to use and do what they say they are going to do. It's far more efficient than having to do it individually. And there's always, evidently, people who won't, because they trust their doctor or the brand. And, being medical products and devices, sometimes those people or their loved ones die.