Question: Do you test on on animals?

Helen Frost answered on 15 Jun 2017:

I personally have never done any experiments on animals, but I think it’s a really important part of the medical research process. Usually, when you want to make a new medicine, you start by doing experiments on cells growing in a dish in the lab. Then, when you are completely convinced that your drug has the effect you want on that type of cell, you need to know if it has a different effect when it is given to a whole organism (because other types of cells might react to it differently). The most common ‘model organism’ in diseases and drug development is the mouse, but sometimes rats or fish are used, depending on the type of disease and experiments. For most drugs, it’s not possible to begin a clinical trial in patients until you can produce convincing data from animal model experiments, because the ethical committees which give the authorisation for a clinical trial would be completely bonkers to let you give a drug to patients without some proof that it isn’t too dangerous. Data from animal models doesn’t always mean you’ll see the same in humans though, so there are occasional stories in the news about patients in a clinical trial who get really sick from an experimental drug. That’s extremely uncommon though, thanks to the earlier tests using animal models. The animals are always kept in well-regulated conditions – the government monitors the welfare of the animals – so there are strict, ethical guidelines that scientists have to follow, to make sure the animals are treated well and don’t suffer. Animal testing for cosmetics is a little different, in my opinion. It’s the law, because the products are going to be used by humans, but makeup isn’t an essential that you need to survive, so some people think it’s unfair to test cosmetics on animals. I don’t wear makeup, but I can see that it’s a dilemma for a lot of people.