The Failure Of Thalidomide

Thalidomide was patented by a German Pharmaceutical company, Grunenthal, in 1954. Originally, the company marketed the drug as an over-the-counter sedative to treat anxiety and sleeplessness; however, beginning in 1957, the drug was primarily used to alleviate nausea or morning sickness during pregnancy. Thousands of pregnant women, in over 45 countries, were prescribed Thalidomide from 1957-1962. It was not known until 1961 that the drug had serious side effects and was directly associated to causing birth defects. There are no firm statistics on the number of miscarriages the drug caused, but it is estimated that well over 10,000 babies worldwide were born with some degree of birth defect due to Thalidomide. It was discovered that the drug …show more content…
How an organization decides to handle an incident could lead to the organization’s continued success or ultimate demise. Many factors can play into the public’s opinion of a failure and the organization. One main factor is the role the media can play in reporting the failure. If the reporter puts a positive spin on the story, the organization may fair alright; however, if the reporter sensationalizes it, the organization could be doomed. Unfortunately, bad news sells, so often that is how the story is reported. Also, a media report is much more harmful for the organization if there are pictures or video of the failure that can be played and replayed to keep the issue in the news. There are a few strategies an organization should utilize: be transparent and own up to the failure as soon as it is discovered, let the public know, if possible, how the problem will be rectified, and compensate the affected individuals or parties when possible. For example, in summer 2016, Southwest Airline’s main computer system went down for almost 12 hours leaving travelers stranded and frustrated from coast to coast. This was a major news story on the national level; but because Southwest and its employees were making every effort to keep the public apprised of the developing situation and work with its customers to rebook them with other airlines to get them to their destination in a timely manner, the media painted the whole situation as more of an public inconvenience than a devastating crisis. A week later, the media announced that Southwest was continuing to apologize and make amends for the incident by provided all affected customers with a voucher for a half price ticket anywhere the airline