The conference ‘Establishing London as a leading centre for non-animal medical research’ sought to urge the political and medical research communities to promote the most advanced methods of research in London rather than relying in outmoded techniques involving animals.
Keynote speaker Dr Ray Greek explained that animal research, aside form being widely considered to be cruel, is ineffective and a waste of valuable resources. Animal experiments fail in up to 80% of cases to predict how toxic a substance will be to humans. This has lead to near catastrophic delays in recognising the harm of smoking to humans or the benefits of certain drugs including penicillin. Another speaker, Dr Claude Reiss spoke of the absurdity of continuing to conduct AIDS experiments on chimpanzees who are resistant to the HIV virus.
Despite the superiority of the most advanced non-animal methods of research (many of the advances made in the observation and potential treatments for cancer, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s come from non-animal methods) practically no funding is given to utilise or advance it.
Noel Lynch, Green Party Member of the London Assembly and chair of the Conference said, "I have seen very impressive evidence of the need to start taking these research methods seriously. The animal model continues to be flawed while work on human tissue, computer modelling and human cell based research are producing results with little funding. If London is to advance its research capabilities it needs to start looking at 21st century approaches."
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Dr Greek is the worlds leading exponent on the consequences for humans of animal testing. He is a physician certified in anaesthesiology. He is the President of EFMA (Europeans for Medical Advancement).
Dr Reiss is a molecular biologist. For 30 years he was a Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.
Other speakers were Dr Gill Langley, Scientific Advisor to the Dr Hadwen Trust who spoke on the struggle to establish funding fro a centre for non-animal medical research and Danny Bates of Animal Aid who spoke on pushing London forward in terms of non-animal research.
ENDS