Drug testing

This Covance laboratory was using monkeys in a range of drug 'safety' studies. Many were repeat-dose tests, usually lasting between one and nine months. Other animals were used in much longer-term experiments, lasting up to three years. The number of monkeys used in each study group varied from 6 to 52 individuals, depending on the specific purpose.

The experiments were aimed at identifying toxic side effects and how these relate to the drug dose, and finding out how a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolised and excreted by the body (called toxicokinetics).

Whilst legislation does unfortunately currently prescribe animal tests, there is no regulation demanding the use of monkeys in drug development1. Regulations do require a second (non-rodent) species in addition to rodents for acute, sub-acute and longer-term toxicity tests, but the choice of species is not mandated. Dogs or primates are usually selected by the drug company and/or the contract testing laboratory as the second species mainly for historic reasons. Such work has been done on primates and dogs in the past and therefore researchers claim they have a background of information to compare with current test data.

References
Animal Procedures Committee (2002). The use of primates under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (1986): analysis of current trends with particular reference to regulatory toxicology, pp 20-21. Publ. Home Office, UK.