In 1960, Dr. Kelsey was a Food and Drug Administration reviewer when the application to begin mass marketing thalidomide in the US landed on her desk. As a reviewer of New Drug Applications (NDA), she was one of three people charged with determining a drug’s safety before it could be made available for public consumption. After a thorough review, she rejected the application for thalidomide because it lacked sufficient evidence of safety through rigorous clinical trials. She found the clinical trials insufficient and reliant on anecdotes and physician testimonials rather than sound scientific study….