Clinical impact of high-profile animal-based research reported in the UK national press

It's Time to Review the Three Rs, to Make them More Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century

The Three Rs have become widely accepted and pursued, and are now the go-to framework that encourages the humane use of animals in science, where no other option is believed to exist. However, many people, including scientists, harbour varying degrees of concern about the value and impact of the Three Rs. This ranges from a continued adherence to the Three Rs principles in the belief that they have performed well, through a belief that there should be more emphasis (or indeed a sole focus) on replacement, to a view that the principles have hindered, rather than helped, a critical approach to animal research that should have resulted in replacement to a much greater extent. This critical review asks questions of the Three Rs and their implementation, and provides an overview of the current situation surrounding animal use in biomedical science (chiefly in research). It makes a case that it is time to move away from the Three Rs and that, while this happens, the principles need to be made more robust and enforced more efficiently. To expedite a shift from animal use in science, toward a much greater and quicker adoption of human-specific New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), some argue for a straightforward focus on the best available science.

Poor Translatability of Biomedical Research Using Animals - A Narrative Review

The failure rate for the translation of drugs from animal testing to human treatments remains at over 92%, where it has been for the past few decades. The majority of these failures are due to unexpected toxicity - that is, safety issues revealed in human trials that were not apparent in animal tests - or lack of efficacy. However, the use of more innovative tools, such as organs-on-chips, in the preclinical pipeline for drug testing, has revealed that these tools are more able to predict unexpected safety events prior to clinical trials and so can be used for this, as well as for efficacy testing. Here, we review several disease areas, and consider how the use of animal models has failed to offer effective new treatments. We also make some suggestions as to how the more human-relevant new approach methodologies might be applied to address this.