Posted by viridis on February 2, 2003, at 16:59:56
In reply to Re: Adderall - what is the action of amphetamines?, posted by utopizen on February 2, 2003, at 9:47:28
Hi Utopizen,
I don't want to get into a major argument about animal testing, and I agree that there's a big difference between pharmaceuticals and, say, cosmetics (I don't favor animal testing for frivolous products like that).
You can always find examples in which a particular species of animal reacts differently to a given substance than a human does -- I'm sure the LD-50s are quite different for many chemicals in dogs vs. humans, for example. But the problem is, what's the alternative? Some people propose computer models, cell cultures, etc. before bringing a drug to human trials. These approaches can be helpful, but we still don't have a way to model or approximate the complex interactions in a living organism without actually using an organism. So, do we go straight to humans? That seems awfully risky to me.
One case that comes to mind is Pregabalin, the successor to Neurontin. The company was getting all set to market it, when a study in mice showed a significantly higher incidence of tumors in the treatment vs. control group. Now, of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it will cause cancer in humans, but it sure raises a red flag, and points to the need for more study before it starts getting prescribed to people. In mice, which only live a few years, tumors show up quickly enough that they can be detected in an experiment. In humans, it could be 10 or 20 years down the road before users start developing cancer (if the drug is, in fact, a carcinogen in humans).
We could go back and forth, with you citing cases in which animals have proven to be poor substitutes for humans, and me giving examples of ways in which animal testing has contributed to drug development or alerted the pharm companies to unexpected dangers. I guess my view is that it's unfortunate that animal testing is necessary, and it's far from perfect, but it's the best approach we've got at this point.
Anyway, this is starting to move outside the realm of PB material, so probably we should get back to discussing what these drugs do in humans.
All the best,
Viridis
P.S. Good luck with your new pdoc!
poster:viridis
thread:138755
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030130/msgs/138957.html