World Animal Free Research Day
One of our partner charities in the Alliance for Human Relevant Science is Animal Free Research UK. They have initiated an annual World Animal Free Research Day on the anniversary of their founding, 27th May.
Our goals are very complementary: Animal Free Research UK’s vision is “To create a world where human diseases are cured faster without animal suffering”, while Safer Medicines Trust’s mission is to protect patients by speeding a transition to human-focused drug development and testing.
We both agree that outdated animal research is failing patients and that investment in human-relevant science offers a golden opportunity to revitalise medical research, for the benefit of all.
As our Science Adviser, leading cancer researcher Professor Azra Raza tweeted this week: “Take the blinders off and see that using animal models for pre-clinical testing has failed to help develop novel cancer therapies. Invest in Phase 0 Trials. Take therapies directly to humans. Reduce dose by 1/500.”
And as the CEO of Emulate, Jim Corbett writes in Forbes yesterday, “To make the drug development process safer, we have to take a hard look at the models we use. We have to see that the mouse has no clothes and that there are better models out there.”
Exciting activities are coming up: the Animal Free Research UK Conference – Modernising Medical Research – is in Birmingham on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th June 2022. Ticket sales end on 1st June – so hurry!
And the UK’s first Helpathon to accelerate human-relevant science will take place on 11 and 12 October – the deadline for expressions of interest is 30 June 2022.
