Latest News
Newsletter Spring 2010 available now
Read our latest newsletter here (pdf)
Report on our House of Lords conference published by FRAME
Read the report in the journal Alternatives To Laboratory Animals (ATLA) here
Early Day Motion 212: Access to human tissue for health research
Jo Swinson MP has tabled EDM 212: Access to human tissue for health research, calling on the Government to increase the accessibility of human tissue samples for health research.
This is another very important initiative. Please ask your MP to sign EDM 212, as well as EDM 29.
You can view the signatories here. You can find the name of your MP here.
Early Day Motion 29: Safety of Medicines
Dr Bob Spink MP has re-tabled the Safety of Medicines Early Day Motion in this new parliamentary session as EDM 29. Please write to your own MP to ask them to sign EDM 29: Safety of Medicines – taking the opportunity to thank them if they signed EDM 569 in the last session.
You can view the signatories here. You can find the name of your MP here.
A phenomenal 243 MPs signed Early Day Motion 569: Safety of Medicines:
"That this House believes the safety of medicines should be established by the most reliable methods available in order to reduce the large and increasing toll of serious adverse drug reactions and calls upon the Government to initiate an unprecedented comparison of currently required animal tests with a set of human biology-based tests, as required by the Safety of Medicines (Evaluation) Bill 2009, to see which is the most effective means to predict the safety of medicines for patients."
You can view the signatories here. You can find the name of your MP here.
Very many thanks to everyone who encouraged their MP to sign - you helped to achieve a truly remarkable demonstration of support in favour of such a momentous evaluation: EDM 569 was the joint 10th most-signed of all 2,421 EDMs in the last parliamentary session!
Safer Medicines Trust organised a very successful conference at the House of Lords
On 20th October, Professor the Lord McColl, shadow Spokesperson for Health, hosted a conference entitled:
Human tissues are invaluable for medical research - how can we make them more available?
You can play all the presentations and hear the Radio 4 interviews here
Safer Medicines Campaign article published on Guardian website:
The dead end of animal research
Despite persistent lobbying for animal testing, the evidence shows it is of little use in developing medicines for humans
Kathy Archibald, Director, Safer Medicines Campaign.
You can read the article here
Safer Medicines Trust responds to Home Office consultation on the revision of EU Directive 86/609
The European Commission is updating the 20-year old Directive 86/609 regulating animal experiments. The UK Home Office has just conducted a public consultation on the Commission's proposal. Most of the questions were not relevant for us, as a patient safety organisation, to answer. However, the use of animals as models of human disease and also for testing the safety of medicines has a major impact on patient safety and thus the directive is of concern to us. You can see our submission here.
Leading researcher asks "Why use a rat when a human will do?"
Dr Kelly Berube, a human lung tissue engineering specialist at Cardiff University, was interviewed on the BBC's Today programme on Thursday 4th June prior to speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival. When asked about the need for continuing research using animal tissue, she responded:
Now we can do our experiments in petri dishes with functional human tissue. Now you have human data, so no need for the rat. I say, why use a rat when a human lung will do? I don’t see any reason why we can’t use human tissue. It’s the best way to go. You get human end point data, you don’t have to worry about saying, well, this happened in the rat, this might happen in man.
To listen to the interview in full, please click here
International regulators sign deal on validating alternatives to animal testing
Our comments published in Regulatory Affairs Journal Pharma here
We are grateful to Regulatory Affairs Journal Pharma for allowing us to reproduce this article on our website.
Safer Medicines Trust article published in Scientists for Global Responsibility newsletter:
Could we have safer medicines through non-animal testing?
The use of animals in medical research is an emotionally charged topic, but the scientific rationale behind their use is rarely questioned. Dr Margaret Clotworthy from Safer Medicines Trust describes an initiative doing just that.
You can read the article here
Safer Medicines Campaign featured in Lifescape Magazine, April/May 2009
Article reproduced here with kind permission of Lifescape Magazine.
Safer Medicines Campaign featured on BBC1 Inside Out programme, 25 February
Dr Margaret Clotworthy is interviewed during a feature on the increase in animal experimentation in the UK. Her contribution starts half way through the 9 minute clip available here.
Our commentary on the use of primates in research published in important scientifc journal
In January, the European Commission published its opinion on the matter, which was disturbingly one-sided and deeply flawed - as was their consultation process: see here
We are grateful to Regulatory Affairs Journal Pharma for allowing us to reproduce the article on our website.
Human alternatives to animal testing should be investigated, MPs say
See article in the Telegraph, 26th January
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