A drug responsible for devastating birth defects in the early 1960s may make a comeback almost forty years later to help treat leprosy and AIDS. Thalidomide, manufactured by Chemie Grüenthal, was sold from 1958–62 in approximately forty-six countries as a sedative or anti-nausea drug for pregnant women. Thalidomide severely deformed thousands of babies whose mothers took it in their first trimester of pregnancy. Never sold in the US because Federal Drug Administration (FDA) scientist Frances Kelsey single-handedly blocked its approval, it was internationally banned by 1962. The tragedy led to laws requiring rigorous testing procedures for American pharmaceutical products.