Replacing Animals in Safety Tests
Safety tests using human cells are more accurate than animal tests. In fact, a new company now offers methods for developing new drugs without the use of animals at all.
In the Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity tests (MEIC), researchers from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other countries tried 68 different test-tube methods to predict the toxicity of 50 different chemicals, such as aspirin, digoxin, diazepam (Valium), nicotine, malathion, and lindane. The effects of the chemicals in humans were already known from poison control centers. The study's goal was to see how well the cellular tests matched actual human experience and to compare them with data previously reported for animal tests.
Rat LD50 tests (lethal dose tests that measure the dose of a chemical that kills 50 percent of the animals given it) were only 59 percent accurate, and mouse tests were about 70 percent accurate. But the average human cell test was 77 percent accurate. Accuracy was boosted to 80 percent when results from three different human cell tests were combined.
With personnel formerly of Glaxo Wellcome, SmithKline Beecham, and Shire Pharmaceuticals, Pharmagene Laboratories, based in Royston, England, became the first company to conduct new drug development and testing using human tissues and sophisticated computer technologies exclusively. With tools from molecular biology, biochemistry, and analytical pharmacology, Pharmagene conducts extensive studies of human genes and investigates how drugs affect the actions of these genes or the proteins they make. While in this instance they used some animal tissues for this purpose, Pharmagene scientists believe that the discovery process is much more efficient with human tissues.
Non-Animal Tests
