Animal Testing

Medicines are aimed to eliminate suffering and maintain good health of people. Before a new human medicine may be brought to the market, it must undergo a series of tests to evaluate matters such as efficacy and safety. Part of this process involves animal experimentation, which is widely used to develop new medicines and new medical procedures, and to test the safety of other products. Animal models have been part of medical science for thousands of years: for instance, the Greek physician Galen demonstrated using animals that arteries contain blood rather than air. In modern biomedical science, the use of animals in research and testing is a vital part of the process of developing new medicines. For instance, in the United Kingdom alone, just over ...