Dear Editor,
We should all be up in arms that the Food and Drug Administration
has not issued regulations requiring pharmaceutical companies to
develop alternatives to animal testing when developing new drugs
and seeking approval from the FDA for permission to proceed to clinical
(human) trials. The clinical testing on animals for FDA drug approval
is the cause of pain and suffering for millions of animals in the
United States each year. These tests have proven to bear little or
no relationship to the effect the drug will have on humans. One prominent
case in point is the suffering caused by Merck’s Vioxx drug, and Merck’s and the FDA’s
careless reliance on animal test results.
As a result, both the laboratory animals and the people who took
Vioxx suffer needlessly. It’s time concerned citizen of the
United States rise up and contact Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, Acting
Commissioner of the FDA to demand that the FDA change its regulation
to require more accurate, humane and affordable alternatives to experimenting
on animals.
Susan Kemenyas
