The use of thalidomide was never discontinued in Brazil where it is prescribed 
for leprosy type 2 reaction. Babies with birth defects compatible with the 
thalidomide embryopathy phenotype were born after 1965, an indication that 
control on drug dispensing and use failed in the country. The article reports 
data on thalidomide dispensing and clinical uses in the Federal District in 
2011/12, when new rules were put into effect, and data on drug dispensing and 
use obtained ten years earlier. It was found that the number of patients making 
use of thalidomide declined from 819 in 2001 to 369 in 2011/12. Leprosy 
accounted for over 70% of prescriptions in both time periods analyzed in this 
study. In the same time interval, however, use for lupus erythematosus decreased 
from 13.7 to 4.9%, while that for multiple myeloma increased from 2.9 to 20.3% 
of all prescriptions. Thalidomide prescription for the remaining approved 
indications was far less frequent, and so was the use for off label indications 
that accounted for <1% of prescriptions in 2001 and 2011/12. Registration of 
prescribing doctors, patients and dispensing units at the state department of 
health, apparently rendered this control more effective and reliable.