I'll never forget Northwick Park Hospital. After all, it was where my dear late mother was taken after her sudden death during a visit to London in January 1996.
Indeed, very few British people will ever forget that hospital.
A bare decade later during March 2006, six healthy young men ended up in intensive care there after volunteering to test an anti-inflammatory drug at its research unit. The paid volunteers suffered multiple organ failure after testing the drug and at one stage, two of them were critically ill.
Kathy Archibald of the Safer Medicines Campaign recalled the episode during a recent BBC TV Politics Show interview (clip above) as part of the drive to reduce and finally stop the increasing use of animals in testing the safety of medicines for human consumption. She, like me, and countless others, fervently believes that there is always another - human - alternative.
While the pros and cons of the argument continue to be aired, several facts are clear in favour of non-animal tests:
- Testing drugs on animals is immeasurably cruel.
- Animals and humans do not react similarly to many drugs - as the notorious consequences of Thalidomide and Avandia make abundantly clear.
- Stem cell tissue and computerised techniques are accurate and painless.
- Many if not most of the decisions made about this issue are political not scientific.
As many British companies are being compelled to move away from animal tests for cosmetics and household products, let us hope that it is not too long before their use in medicines is also outlawed.
See also: http://wwwperfectlywriteasrain.blogspot.com/2010/10/safer-medicines-in-britain-and-israel.html
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