Clinical Trials: Animal Testing: Progress Or Pain?

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Each year in the name of medical progress, scientists experiment with 100 million mice, rats, monkeys, fish and dogs. They expose the animals to medicines and therapies that could become the next cancer killer or depression fighter, but are the tests a move forward or backward?

But there is controversy around animal testing.

Inside these rooms, behind locked cages, 13 dogs, 13 pigs, 800 rats, 800 zebrafish and 9,000 mice were born for one purpose - medical research.

Veterinarian John Young runs the research labs at Cedars-Sinai medical center. He opens the doors to our cameras to show his side of animal research.

Young said these rats are long-term survivors of brain cancer -- the same cancer that will kill some of the young patients on the pediatric oncology floor at his hospital.

"The prospect of that wipes away all doubt in my mind of what I'm doing is not only worthwhile, but a very noble use of animals," Young said.

Successful vaccinations, MRI, CT scans and antibiotics were all developed as a result of animal testing.

With progress comes controversy. A home video was taken at a leading university medical center after a whistle-blowing veterinarian alleged lab animals suffered cruelty and neglect.

"It was just horrible. It was horrific," said Catherine Dell'Orto, DVM veterinarian with Sabino Veterinary Care in Tucson, Ariz.

Dell'Orto was responsible for the care of the animals.

Dell'Orto complained to her supervisors and the USDA. When she failed to get their attention, she contacted PETA.

"Any kind of drug trial using an animal, basically you're slowly poisoning the animal to death," said Alka Chandna, PhD, laboratory oversight specialist with PETA in Norfolk, Va.

An internal investigation found inadequate veterinary care in some of the animals used and the university implemented reforms based on some of the complaints.

"I left, but for years I would have nightmares about what I saw," Dell'Orto said.

As the debate rages on, a new question comes up - are animals the best option?

"Of all drugs that test safe and effective in animals and laboratories, 92 percent are found to be either unsafe or ineffective in humans," Chandna said.

Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Alan Goldberg, believes we need to replace, reduce and refine the process of animal testing.

"It's not that we are going to just stop animal testing. You can eliminate specific pieces of it," Goldberg said.

Goldberg believes high-tech alternatives will be the answer. The use of high-speed, high-power computer models, in vitro testing and new microchips are being developed that mimic the functions and responses of different organs.

"This is the beginning of the end of animal testing," Goldberg said.

That may be the case in the United States, but hundreds of tests and millions of dollars are sent overseas, outsourced to China because of costly U.S. regulations and the increase of threats against companies that use animals for research.

"We know that enforcement is near nonexistent in China," Chandna said.

Animal testing is an ethical and scientific challenge for researchers and animal lovers around the globe.

"I wonder are we really advancing ourselves as a culture by doing this?" asked Dell'Orto.

"I would submit that if you would disallow the use of animals in medical research, medical progress wouldn't slow. It would stop and it would reverse," Young said.

A hard decision for anyone - ranking animals' pain against the possibility of saving lives

Regulations on animal testing have been tightened in recent years. A Tufts University Study found in 1970 50 million animals were used for testing. Today that number is down to about 14 million.

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS

RESEARCH SUMMARY

TOPIC: CLINICAL TRIALS: ANIMAL TESTING: PROGRESS OR PAIN?

REPORT: MB #2901a

BACKGROUND: Animal testing is the practice of testing non-human subjects for scientific research purposes. For years, household products, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics have been tested on animals. An estimated 50 to 100 million animals are used worldwide each year for experimentation purposes. The animals range from zebrafish and mice, to non-human primates like Rhesus Macaques, chimpanzees and baboons. An article published in Science in 1999 states that roughly 20 million rats and mice are used each year in the United States for testing purposes. Mice are often viewed as the best subjects for inherited human diseases because they share 99 percent of their genes with humans and can be genetically engineered to display a range of diseases.

FOR OR AGAINST? According to a survey by the American Medical Association, 99 percent of physicians in the United States believe animal testing has helped foster progress in the medical community. Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents also support continued use of animal testing for clinical research. Without animal testing, there's no way to prove safety, says John Young, V.M.D., director of the department of comparative medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is Los Angeles, Calif. "You can learn a lot in vitro, in a tissue culture, but a tissue culture has no beating heart, no blood vessels, no nerve conductivity, no consciousness," Dr. Young told Ivanhoe. "You can make some hypothesis that a new anti-cancer drug, which kills cancer cells in a petri dish, but leaves normal cells alone, [but] you have no idea what that is going to do to blood pressure, to brain function, so you have to test that for safety and efficacy in a living, breathing intact organism."

While animal testing for medical purposes has garnered support, a majority of the American public opposes applying the research practice to less essential studies, like for cosmetics or household cleaning agents. A sample of 1,000 adults revealed 60 percent disagreed with animal testing for such purposes, while 43 percent opposed testing of over-the-counter medicine and 20 percent opposed prescription drug testing. In the past decade, cosmetic companies have responded to the public's view and companies like Avon and Revlon have denounced animal testing. Other companies guarantee certain products are animal friendly, such as Clairol's Herbal Essence shampoo line.

In 1944, at the height of World War II, John Draize helped develop a method to assess eye damage from chemical warfare agents. The Draize test continues to be used today for products like shampoo, hair spray, deodorant, pesticides and detergents. The test typically involves putting a chemical agent in one eye of a rabbit, while the other eye is left untouched for comparison. Over several days, irritation and eye damage are observed. The FDA supports the test, but criticism of it has prompted a reduction in its use. When performed today, it is sometimes modified to require a lower amount of the test substance placed in the eye, and by giving the subjects anesthetics to reduce their discomfort.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION: At one point, pharmaceuticals were not widely regulated by the government. Prescription drugs were banned only after a company was prosecuted for distributing a product that harmed individuals. That practice changed drastically when more than 100 people died in 1937 after taking a drug called Elixer of Sulfanilamide. The incident encouraged the United States congress to pass laws requiring drugs to be tested for safety before being marketed to the public; but today, the government often requires that preliminary testing to involve animals. "If you are going to go to clinical trial with a new drug or a new diagnostic modality, the federal government -- the Food and Drug Administration -- requires safety and efficacy data, and that usually is required to be performed in at least two different species of non-human animals," Dr. Young explained.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Americans for Medical Progress
http://www.amprogress.org

Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
http://caat.jhsph.edu

PETA
http://www.peta.org

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
http://www.pcrm.org