Misconceptions
Most people are unfamiliar with the research process, and there are misconceptions about the way that animals are used in medical and scientific research. Science can seem meaningless out of context and the lengthy processes of clinical drug trials is sometimes misinterpreted as repeating the studies already carried out in animals. Some of the more common rumors are addressed below.
Microdosing
Microdosing can replace animal safety tests.
Microdosing is intended to study how very small doses of potential medicines behave in human volunteers (sometimes called Phase 0 human trials). It should make the drug discovery process more efficient by highlighting earlier whether a compound is suitable. New, urgently needed medicines could be available sooner and more cheaply as a result.
Back to the topVioxx
The side-effects and subsequent withdrawal of the arthritis treatment Vioxx was due to animal tests.
Vioxx was extensively studied in thousands of human patients in clinical trials both before and after it was approved by over 70 regulatory agencies around the world. For any new medicine, animal and other tests are meant to help work out if the medicine is safe enough for human trials. In the case of Vioxx, the answer was yes - animal tests did their job well.
Back to the topNorthwick Park
The clinical trial tragedy at Northwick Park hospital in the UK shows that animal tests don't work.
TGN1412 is one of the newer ‘biological' medicines. None of the tests done before the clinical trial predicted its tragic side-effects. The expert inquiry described the human blood cell tests as a "striking failure". Testing the safety and effectiveness of such treatments is more difficult than most medicines. But many biologicals which have been developed in animals, like Herceptin, are already saving lives.
Back to the topSystematic reviews
Systematic reviews like those reported in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) demonstrate that animal studies are meaningless for human health.
Systematic reviews can help to tell us whether studies are being properly carried out and published. For example, a systematic review in the respected journal The Lancet showed that none of the 500 human clinical trials for an illness called tardive dyskinesia produced any useful data.
Back to the topNeuroimaging
Magnetic resonance imaging can now be used on humans to get the same level of information as invasive studies of brain cells in animals.
This technique measures blood flow in different parts of the brain. It can be used in human volunteers without ill effect. But it does not give anything like the same level of detailed information that can be achieved by painlessly inserting electrodes into brain tissue in animal or human studies.
Back to the topHIV & AIDS research
HIV and AIDS have been difficult to tackle because the virus targets the body's immune system, and because it mutates rapidly. Leading researchers have recently recommended that more basic research should be done to help us understand the virus better, before further vaccine trials are carried out in volunteers. While we do not yet have an effective vaccine, animal studies have been crucial in identifying the virus, developing diagnostic tests, and for producing therapies that have prolonged millions of lives.
Back to the topLast edited: 4 November 2014 18:06