I applaud the article by Pandora Pound and colleagues pointing out how animals can be effectively reduced in medical/pharmaceutical research.1 As a former director of a very large animal research program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and as a long-term consultant to Janssen Pharmaceutical in Beerse, Belgium, I was made aware of the large and effective screening system at Janssen and then introduced some methods at Upjohn, in Michigan, to improve the screening there to avoid animals. These methods were primitive compared to present capabilities. I too, believe that the fewer animals that are used to effectively screen compounds or methods to treat diseases should be the goal of every good research program. There are limits that I still see, and perhaps I am biased because of my continued research in a surgical method for tumour ablation of the liver. I believe that surgical and orthopaedic procedures will still require time for development without the necessary use of animal models. Someday, we will develop a way to decrease the animals used for this research, too.
Declarations
Competing Interests
None declared.
Reference
- 1.Archibald K, Tsaioun K, Kenna JG, Pound P. Better science for safer medicines: the human imperative. J R Soc Med 2018; 111: 433–438. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]