Can Medical Research on Animals be Justified?

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Human clinical and epidemiological studies, in vitro studies, and computer simulators are faster, more reliable, less expensive, and more humane than animal tests. Comparative studies of human populations allow doctors and scientists to discover the root causes of human diseases and disorders so that preventive action can be taken. Epidemiological studies led to the discoveries of the relationship between smoking and cancer and to the identification of heart disease risk factors. 2 Population studies also demonstrated how   AIDS and other infectious diseases are transmitted and   showed how these diseases can be prevented. 3

Cell and tissue culture (in vitro) studies are used to screen for anti-cancer, anti-AIDS, and other types of drugs, and are used to   produce and test a number of   vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutic proteins. In vitro genetic research has isolated specific markers, genes, and proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy, schizophrenia, and other inherited diseases. And today’s "super" computers can actually predict the effect of substances on all the organs of the human body.

Other promising in vitro methods include microdosing allows precise evaluation of drug activity in the human body using minuscule drug doses, and the Hurel biochip, which has a series of compartments lined with cells from various organs, allows a drug to encounter human cells in the same order it would encounter them in the human body. Biochips from a specific patient’s cells may soon permit doctors to predict whether a particular patient can take a specific drug safely and effectively.

Every year, a new crop of cheaper, faster, more accurate non-animal tests are developed and put on the market. The American company, MatTek Corporation, makes 3-D tissue models of certain body parts, such eyes or skin, that come from human cells. For many pharmaceutical companies, these “living” tissues yield more accurate results than the old, crude tests on animals. Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, DuPont Co., MedImmune Inc. and Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. are a few of the companies that use MatTek’s tests, and that are investing millions of dollars in non-animal research .