On 17 July 1979The New York Timesannounced that the New York State Supreme Court found the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly responsible for the vaginal cancer affecting Joyce Bichler and awarded the young woman $500,000 in compensation.¹ The New York state ruling was the first legal decision recognizing that pharmaceutical firms, rather than physicians or regulatory authorities, were liable for the adverse consequences of the medical uses of diethylstilbestrol (DES). This analog of estrogen had been prescribed to millions of pregnant women in the United States as a safety measure against the risk of miscarriage for thirty years, until