Testing medicines

It has been reported that two big pharmaceutical companies have had to withdraw drugs from the market because they were causing serious side-effects and fatalities had occurred.

Given that these drugs would have been tested on animals one wonders at the efficacy of so doing when often the conclusion drawn from animal testing have proved to be false.

Adverse drug reactions are now the fourth biggest killer in the western world. There must be something sadly wrong with drug development methods for this to be so and, indeed, this is scientifically demonstrable.

The only ethical way forward is to undertake an unbiased, objective analysis of the relative contributions of animal based and non-animal-based testing to human medicine, and as long as the scientific and medical establishment refuse to do so the health and safety of the public are at risk.

JEAN COOPER

Aytoun Grove, Dunfermline