DES - A Huge Experiment, A Massive Failure
DES (diethylstilbestrol) was prescribed for pregnant women during the 1950s and 1960s after Harvard researchers erroneously concluded, without proper testing, that it helped prevent miscarriages. The drug was not patented, and three hundred companies began production without first conducting any long-term studies. In 1954 the first controlled study of DES efficacy revealed that the drug did not work.
You can learn the latest information at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's DES information center at http://www.cdc.gov/DES/. USA Today recounts the history of diethylstilbestrol and the health problems it created in its story "Hidden toll of DES, a generation later."
Recent studies have shown a relationship between prenatal DES exposure and cancer, infertility and premature delivery, and have confirmed that any reasonable manufacturer should have known that DES not only failed to promote healthy full-term pregnancies, it was also a teratogen and a carcinogen.
The Chief of Toxicology at Baylor Medical School, one of the world's experts on DES and former consultant to one of the manufacturers of DES. His recent testimony lays out in a manner understandable to a jury, how drug companies failed to test for efficacy (it never worked) and failed to warn of risks and harm which were known before the drug was placed on the market.
 This ad appeared in a major medical journal in 1957. The small print at the bottom reads: "Recommended for routine prophylaxis in ALL pregnancies... 96 per cent live delivery with desPLEX in one series of 1200 patients - bigger and stronger babies, too. No gastric or other side effects with desPLEX - in either high or low dosage."
There was absolutely no scientific support for this type of propaganda.
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