The US was "lucky" in that they had the elixir sulfanilamide scandal a while earlier which pushed them to adopt medicine approval standards. France was another

The US was "lucky" in that they had the elixir sulfanilamide scandal a while earlier which pushed them to adopt medicine approval standards. France was another country that avoided Thalidomide since they had their Stalinon scandal a few years earlier which had spurred them into stricter regulation as well. Sadly, everyone had to learn this lesson "the hard way", the timelines were just different.