ABPI welcomes new report on animal research
pharmafile | June 1, 2005 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
The ABPI has welcomed a new report on the ethics of animal research, agreeing the industry must challenge the need for animal testing in medicines development.
The report from Nuffield Council on Bioethics called for a reduction in the level of animal testing after examining ethical issues raised by the controversial subject.
It also found that animal experimentation could be scientifically valid but stressed that the issue had to be judged on a case-by-case basis.
Dr Philip Wright, ABPI director of science and technology, responding to the findings, said: "Pointless animal research would distract from the main objective of getting new medicines through to patients quickly. The ABPI recognises the need to communicate the rationale for the use of animals as part of an open debate."
But the ABPI stressed that achieving a reduction could only come about without intimidation from animal extremists and welcomed the report's conclusions that such activities were morally unjustified.
The ABPI also emphasised animal experimentation would be required to bring new drugs to market in the near future but called on pharma companies to keep challenging this requirement, particularly with the advent of new technologies.
The Nuffield report is the third independent study to say that animal experiments aid scientific and medical advances. Both the House of Lords select committee in 2002 and the Animal Procedures committee in 2003 drew similar conclusions.
Philip Connolly, director of the Coalition for Medical Progress, said: "Nuffield emphasises the highest cost of research using animals – the few procedures that cause the most suffering. Concerns are not so much about the majority of procedures, which are little different from what happens in GP clinics and hospitals throughout the land. Focusing on the small extremity makes sense."
Key recommendations from the report include:
- Government bodies should provide more information on animal testing to better judge its value.
- The Home Office should make retrospective information about the level of suffering involved during procedures publicly available.
- The government should improve the annual statistics it releases on animal procedures.
The pharmaceutical industry accounts for around a third of all animal research carried out in the UK – there were around 2.75 million scientific procedures carried out in 2003.
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