Pregnant Women Are Routinely Excluded From Clinical Trials

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Pregnant people are routinely excluded from medical trials. Peter brocklehurst says this dates back to the phelidamide disaster of the late 19 fifties and very early 19 sixties. Thelidamide was a drug which was given to women who had nauseun vomiting in early pregnancy. Some of the fetuses that were exposed, they developed a condition called fo camelia,. It is very short limbs and deformities of the hands and feet. And understandably, because of the terrible consequences, people have been very afraid to either test medicines in pregnancy or develop new medicines for use in pregnancy.

A recent report on the exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials found that both women and babies in the UK are “dying needlessly” from a lack of suitable medications. Over the past 40 years, only two new medicines have been approved for use in pregnancy, leaving patients to weigh up unknown risks and make difficult decisions about their own health and that of their babies. Science editor Ian Sample talks to Peter Brocklehurst, professor of women’s health at the University of Birmingham, about why pregnant women are so often excluded from pharmaceutical research and how we can make sure they too benefit from modern medicine. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod