Cutting-edge technologies to improve drug development while reducing animal testing

On Thursday, September 19th, 2019, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine hosted a congressional briefing in cooperation with Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), featuring innovator companies showcasing cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to improve the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals while reducing animal testing. The event included a discussion on barriers to integration of these technologies into drug development and policy opportunities and concluded with a Q-and-A session.

Speakers included Elizabeth Baker, JD, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; Lowry Curley, PhD, of AxoSim; Elizabeth Donley, JD, MBA, MS, of Stemina Biomarker Discovery; and Misti Ushio, PhD, of TARA Biosystems.

Many human diseases have no treatment options. Ninety-five percent of rare diseases have no approved treatment. More than 90 percent of new medicines fail in human clinical trials because they are unsafe or do not work, despite promising results in nonclinical animal tests. Modern, human-relevant tests that offer the possibility of more predictive data obtained more quickly and at less cost continue to emerge, yet are rarely used in regulatory decision-making due to barriers that will be discussed.