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Abandoning a failed method is never dependent on what else is available.

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics has published a letter, available here, by Ray Greek MD, President of Europeans For Medical Advancement (EFMA). The letter highlights the importance of Trans-Species Modelling Theory (TSMT): like the Germ Theory of Disease, Theory of Relativity and Theory of Evolution, TSMT explains decades of observations demonstrating the failure of animal experiments in human medicine and places this within a wider context – in our case current understanding of evolutionary biology – to explain why experimenting on animals has never held – and never will hold – predictive value for human patients in the development of new treatments for human diseases.

Organisations which continue to call for more data to prove what science already knows are unnecessarily prolonging the use of animals in such experiments, as demonstrated by the FRAME/BUAV dog study andSafer Medicines Campaignwhich asks for donations to fund more entirely unnecessary comparative studies here: “Please help us if you can: the sooner we can demonstrate the superiority of human-based tests, the sooner they will be used routinely, in place of animal tests, to improve the safety of medicines“. Abandoning a failed method is never dependent on what else is available. Abandoning the failed method of animal experiments to find effective treatments for human patients does not need more funding for more studies.

Below, we reproduce an excerpt from EFMA’s letter to Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, the complete letter is here 

TSMT is a theory that explains the empirical evidence in the same way that the Germ Theory of Disease explained infectious diseases, and led to the demise of miasma. Scientists stopped looking for miasma after the germ theory was developed. Likewise, TSMT should be considered when deciding whether to use an animal in research or testing. The implications of TSMT are obvious: animals should be abandoned as predictive models for human response to drugs and disease. Animal models are not now nor will they ever be models with a high predictive value. Granted, not all animal-based researchers claim predictive value for their model, but most do, and almost all play the prediction card when needed [56 ]. Those concerned with the ethics of using animal models cannot continue to ignore the science that reveals animal models to lack predictive value for human response to drugs and disease. TSMT has major ethical implications for humans and animals. It explains why drug development has such a low yield as well as why such a low percentage of basic science research performed on animals translates to humans [24 , 57 –66 ]. It is concerning that TSMT was not mentioned in an entire issue dedicated to ‘‘Rethinking the Ethics of Research Involving Nonhuman Animals.’’

For the complete letter please visit this link