Half a century ago, Thalidomide, was launched as a morning sickness pill. Scientists revealed that it may be helpful for treating a hereditary condition that affects blood vessels.

French researchers found that if thalidomide is given to patients with a disorder called hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, they tend to reduce the severity as well as frequency of nosebleeds, which is one of the symptoms of the same disease.

Thalidomide treatment was able to repair blood vessel wall defects through a mechanism in which proteins were involved in cell growth, when an experiment was conducted on rats, by Franck Lebrin, who led the study with his colleagues from the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris.

Lebrin wrote, "Biopsies of the nasal surface tissue from patients with HHT showed that similar mechanisms may explain the effects of thalidomide treatment in humans".

About 1 out of every 5000 people is affected by HHT. Many patients tend to develop frequent nose bleeds which disturb their life.

In 1960s it was used to treat nausea during pregnancy. But severe congenital defects appeared in the newborns of mothers who had consumed it; hence it was taken off the market.