There are so many tragedies and failings that have come from animal research. I thought I would start with Thalidomide because it was the first time I heard about animal research being junk science. It was the late 1980’s and I was a kid. My mother worked with children and adults who ran the gamut of mental and physical handicaps. I often went with her to work. The school she worked at had both children and adults. Some of the adults were high functioning but legally retarded. These people had access to a program called The Workshop where the school worked with local businesses to provide them with simple jobs to do. It made them feel good and they had a sense of purpose and accomplishment. There were also those who were profoundly mentally handicapped. Some of them were “locked in” and they didn’t seem to have much awareness of their surroundings at all. They would sit and stare into space sometimes rocking back and forth, sometimes making noises but not able to speak. I was used to being around people who were different. They didn’t scare me. So when I first saw a woman with severely deformed limbs I was wasn’t frightened or disgusted but I was interested in knowing why she looked the way she did.
I went with my father to the DMV to get his license renewed. Behind the desk a woman was bent over typing. She finished typing and looked up. She appeared to have no arms, only hands that looked to be attached to her shoulders, and her hands were disfigured. She was friendly and she had a beautiful face. She could type quickly despite her hands being deformed. I thought it must have been uncomfortable having to lean over like that to type but maybe she was used to it. When we left the DMV my father said, “I’m proud of you. You didn’t stare at her and you were very good in there.” I asked, “what happened to her?” He explained to me that her mother had taken a drug called Thalidomide when she had been pregnant and it caused the deformity. Then he paused and said, “the drug was tested on rabbits and they thought it was safe for humans. Can you believe it? Rabbits aren’t people!”
Thalidomide was developed in Germany under the brand name Contergan. It became available over the counter in 1957. The claim was that it would cure morning sickness in pregnant women as well as insomnia and anxiety. Extensive animal testing had failed to predict any hazards from thalidomide, and the drug was made available largely because of the existing animal data. It wasn’t just tested on rabbits as my father had said. It was tested on a wide variety of species. Besides the 11 breeds of rabbits it was tested on there were 10 strains of rats, 15 strains of mice, 2 breeds of dogs, 3 strains of hamsters, 8 species of primates and in other such varied species as cats, armadillos, guinea pigs, swine and ferrets. The only tetragenic effects that could be observed were in a few animals that had taken massive doses of thalidomide and even then the effects were mild. For example, causing mild deformities in New Zealand white rabbits required drug concentrations between 75 and 300 times the level of human exposure. The drug was deemed perfectly safe. Its developers said “ We could not find a dose high enough to kill a rat.” By 1960, thalidomide was marketed in 46 countries, with sales nearly matching those of aspirin.
Over 10,000 babies were born with severe birth defects that included horribly deformed limbs and heart conditions. Many of these children died. The ones who lived would struggle with these deformities throughout their lives. The drug was pulled off of the shelves and physicians were advised to immediately destroy their supplies of the drug.
9 out of 10 drugs that pass the animal trials fail once they get to human trials. Why? It is all too common for researchers to play up the similarities but downplay the differences between species. Those differences should NEVER be understated. To do so can lead to an enormous amount of human suffering as we have seen here. Even ostensibly minor differences can lead to significant disparities in biological processes and their outcomes. Animal testing is dangerous and wasteful. We have much better technology. It is time we move out of the dark ages and use it.
Wake Forest Waste 