If we couldn t use animals, wouldn t we have to test new drugs on people?
The choice isn t between animals and people. There s no guarantee that drugs are safe just because they ve been tested on animals. Because of the physiological differences between humans and other animals, results from animal tests cannot be accurately extrapolated to humans, leaving us vulnerable to exposure to drugs that can cause serious side effects. Ironically, unfavourable animal test results do not prevent a drug from being marketed for human use. So much evidence has accumulated about differences in the effects that chemicals have on animals and humans that government officials often do not act on findings from animal studies. In the last two decades, many drugs, including phenacitin, Eferol, Oraflex, Suprol and Selacryn, were taken off the market after causing hundreds of deaths and/or injuries. In fact, more than half the drugs the US Food & Drug Administration approved between 1976 and 1985 were either removed from the market or relabelled because of serious side effects. If
