ABSTRACT
Overall, science as a process has in the modern era a variety of ways of seeking to avoid failures. The most difficult failures to contain, perhaps, are when medicines work one way in the laboratory and another with clinical trial test groups or the population at large, for example in terms of side-effects. In the 1960s, a major tragedy occurred when the anti-cancer drug thalidomide was prescribed over-the-counter for nausea. This cure for morning sickness in pregnant women led to the thalidomide tragedy with birth deformities. In turn this led to improvements in drug regulations and control [1]. So, today, in the United Kingdom for example, we have the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) which was established in 1999 and provides evidence-based health care around quality standards.
