The Animals Behind The Medicines

The development of new drugs is under the shadow of masses of animals that have had their lives taken from them for human health benefit.

Animals are a target of interest in the pharmaceutical industry to test new drugs, study diseases, carry out biological research, and sometimes, as a source of raw materials.

Image 1: Currently, animals are essential to developing new drugs.Image 1: Currently, animals are essential to developing new drugs.

When scientists develop a new drug, regional regulatory agencies such as the FDA, the EMA, MFDS, ANMAT, among others, require a complete study of the drug to be marketed, which means that it must completely pass all tests to justify its usefulness.

Major studies include preclinical studies that are animal and cell tests; clinical studies are human tests; after approval, post-market monitoring as security follow-up. They are studies that require legal approval if an investor wants to sell novel medicine.

Toxicological studies are needed. Those kinds of tests are not ethically acceptable in humans; since to obtain the results of these studies, it is necessary to generate direct damage or even kill the studied organism.

Image 2: The line for the medicine development; the animals enter before humans.Image 2: The line for the medicine development; the animals enter before humans.

Many times the effects of these new drugs are unpredictable. When there is a short or long-term intake of new substances, it can cause loathsome defects. May include malformations, sudden deaths, lifelong disability, inherited disorders, self-mutilation, and many other diseases. For these reasons, they are not studied first in humans; as a repercussion, the animals receive all the impact for us.

Subsequently, if a vendor wants to export the drug, other countries will probably also require this type of testing. A trader would be very lucky if he chose a pharmaceutical that validates the initial tests and does not have to do them again; if he has to repeat the studies, it means more unnecessary animal deaths.

Canada, which counts mice, rats, and fish, reported the use of more than 3.8 million animals in experiments in 2018; in 2015, including approximately 20,000 dogs, cats, and primates. Additional animals are also in experiments located in facilities that do not have the Canadian Council on Animal Care certification. In the European Union, which also counts the number of mice, rats, and fish used, in 2017, 9.3 million animal deaths, comparing to 11.7 million in 2011.

Image 3: The test substances usually cause chronic illness or sudden death to the animals.Image 3: The test substances usually cause chronic illness or sudden death to the animals.

Although the drugs have designs for humans bodies, some scientist continues testing drugs in animals. The animal response can be very different due to the low percentage of similarity concerning humans; it is still causing more deaths than necessary. Regardless of whether they survive the tests or not, they will suffer death at the end of the study.

Some experiments even take healthy animals and treat them with chemicals to generate diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer, hypothyroidism, hypertension, etc., and thus be able to study the disease.

Extrapolations to animals can be a source of deviations and misunderstandings when we talk about unveiling the secrets of human diseases due to differences between genes.

Alternative ways already exist as an alternative to assess the necessary parameters and rule out the use of animals. So, the cruelty-free products bring an added good in their development; no animals of any kind in all the coursed path.

Veterinary drugs are also under animal tests; keep in mind that these studies are only for primary tabulations, depending on the country and the medicine.

Image 4: Top 25 drugs and animals involved, source Foundation for Biomedical Research.Image 4: Top 25 drugs and animals involved, source Foundation for Biomedical Research.

Technological advances soon provide cost-effective and efficient solutions for evaluating new drugs. Meanwhile, keep expecting that the big pharmaceutical company and some scientists will continue to use animals to develop new medicines, to study biology and disease. A very marked reduction of animal use has occurred in the cosmetics market, where there are several pioneers in cruelty-free products.

Although the use of laboratory animals is highly regulated and the methods seek to provide the best quality of life to obtain the best result, hundreds of miles of animals die to get a drug. Substances and tests force the animals to suffer in ways that are unnecessarily and exaggerated, which are enough reasons to seek to optimize and invest in alternative methods.


References

  • Foundation for Biomedical Research. Oversight is essential for humane and responsible animal testing and research. Link https://fbresearch.org/animal-care/animal-testing-regulations/.
  • Codecasa, Elisa et al. “Legal Frameworks and Controls for the Protection of Research Animals: A Focus on the Animal Welfare Body with a French Case Study.” Animals : an open access journal from MDPI vol. 11,3 695. 5 Mar. 2021, doi:10.3390/ani11030695.
  • Foundation for Biomedical Research. Animals Behind Top Drugs. Link https://fbresearch.org/medical-advances/animal-research-achievements/animal-research-top-drugs/.
  • Doke SK, Dhawale SC. Alternatives to animal testing: A review. Saudi Pharm J. 2015;23(3):223-229. doi:10.1016/j.jsps.2013.11.002.

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