Best selling magazine, Dogs Today, has this month launched its spotlight on the well documented failure of animal models, in the search for human treatments and cures.
The human medical failure of animal experiments is today widely reported by experts
publishing in the peer reviewed scientific literature, including Dr. Fiona Godlee, Editor in
Chief of the British Medical Journal, who reports that it is “nearly impossible to rely on most
animal data to predict whether or not an intervention will have a favourable clinical benefit
risk ratio in human subjects; … if research conducted on animals continues to be unable to
reasonably predict what can be expected in humans, the public’s continuing endorsement
and funding of preclinical animal research seems misplaced.” [1] The FDA states that nine
out of ten new human medicines fail to pass clinical trials, because animals cannot predict
human responses [2]; the US-based National Cancer Institute says we have lost cures for
cancer, because studies in rodents have been believed [3] and scientists working in the
pharmaceutical industry openly acknowledge the failure of animal experiments in their drug
development process, and write about this often, in the peer reviewed scientific literature. [4]
MPs are continuing to hold the false claims of animal-based researchers to effective public medical account, in Parliament Early Day Motion 187. This EDM calls for a fair and rigorous public scientific hearing, judged by independent experts from the relevant science fileds, to stop the false claims about human medicine which fund animal experiments.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION TO HELP!
Ask your MP to sign the EDM here: simply type in your postcode at this link, and take the three minutes to write to your MP today!
Read the Dogs Today article and take action at its live links!
References
1.BMJ 2014;348:g3719 available here
2. FDA Issues Advice to Make Earliest Stages Of Clinical Drug Development More Efficient.
FDA, June 2006
3. Gura T: Cancer Models: Systems for identifying new drugs are often
faulty. Science. 1997, 278 (5340): 1041-1042.
4. Lumley CE, Walker S Lancaster, Quay, editors, 1990, ‘Clinical Toxicity – Could it have
been predicted? Post-marketing experience’, 57–67; Heywood R. Animal Toxicity Studies:
Their Relevance for Man.