Her colleagues called Frances Oldham Kelsey the drug detective, and her dogged investigation saved thousands of children from birth defects.

Born and raised in British Columbia, the physician and pharmacologist left McGill University in Montreal and used her impressive resume to nab a plum job with a noted drug researcher at the University of Chicago.

The guy only hired her in 1936 because he thought Frances was a male name.

But Kelsey’s stellar work soon set her apart and, while trying to cure malaria, she learned some drugs pass through the placental barrier and affect the fetus.

Thanks to her hard-won expertise in birth defects, she was eventually hired by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she was one of only seven full-time and four part-time physicians reviewing new medications.

After just a month on the job, she was assigned to evaluate the now-infamous drug thalidomide for distribution in America. It had already been approved for use in more than 20 countries, including Canada, Germany, and several African nations.

Marketed as a morning sickness remedy for pregnant women, thalidomide was described as a “wonder drug” by its West German maker, Chemie Grunenthal. The company boasted it would alleviate anxiety, insomnia, and nausea.

It could’ve been rubber-stamped easily by the rookie regulator.

But Kelsey was suspicious because the approval submission by American manufacturer William........

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