Chapter 5 - Case studies on the failures of animal research

Animals have borne the brunt of preclinical research, serving as “surrogate humans” for basic studies into how biological networks function in healthy and diseased individuals, the characterization of pathologies, the search for new drug-treatable targets, and the development of new human pharmaceuticals. This focus on animals harms not only the animals used but also humans, due to toxic effects not detected in animal tests, the abandonment of drugs incorrectly labeled as unsafe or ineffective following animal tests, and wasted research funds on poorly translatable animal experiments. This chapter describes case studies on the failures of animal research for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and drug development. Troubling disease burdens are discussed, along with translational failures that leave patients waiting for breakthroughs, and how human-specific methods can overcome the limitations of animal use. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the animal use approval process and how it contributes to both animal and human harms.