Comments on: Even monkeys aren’t the same

By: Esther Hoff

Esther Hoff — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:30:43 +0000

I have such mixed feelings about drug testing. On the one hand, there are truly life-saving drugs out there for which the side-effects (if any) are a trade-off in being able to enjoy life or to stave off worsening of illnesses. My husband has Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (an autoimmune liver disease) and by now at age 45 should be sick and in dire need of a transplant if he were the average PSC patient. Because he was lucky to be diagnosed at a very early stage, his doctors where able to start him on a drug regimen that has successfully slowed down the progression of his disease. In this case, everything that went into the successful development of these drugs was a good thing.

However, I am a DES daughter with the attendant abnomalities in my reproductive system caused by my mom taking this drug while pregnant with me. Later, it was determined that DES was useless in the prevention of miscarriages which is what it was prescribed for. When I was a toddler, I lost a good portion of my hearing thanks to the antibiotic that I was given when I suffered severe kidney infections. In both cases, I really wish that the research and testing of these drugs had found these side effects before they were unleashed onto the public to do their damage. Sometimes you can do all the testing in the world and the true results will not show up until it’s too late.

By: lyndsey

lyndsey — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:30:41 +0000

Why in the heck did they want healthy individuals for a trial testing a drug that is supposed to improve the immune system? That seems silly to me, unless I am missing something altogether.

But hey, you take your chances if you volunteer yourself for these kinds of things…

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:18:53 +0000

Simon,

Someone has to do it. It had been throughly tested in every other way. Would you suggest we just stop all testing and never see another drug come to the market?

By: David Ellis

David Ellis — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:19:11 +0000

It is not surprising that the effects in humans was stronger. The drug was designed specifically for human cells.

I have sympathy for the volunteers. Volunteering is always dangerous, and especially so for new classes of drugs.

Wikipedia has a good writeup of the trial.

By: simon fellows

simon fellows — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:44:20 +0000

Sir..i was in the UK when this was happening.
Some of the men had done similar things afore of course all without problems.
Truly i felt sorry for these fellas but eee gads whats sense did they have?
They saw the ‘spondulicks’ and decided it was worth the risk.
What’ll be curious is of course the lawsuits that shall undoubtably follow;the UK fast becoming like the USA with everybody suing for everything.

As me Gran used to say ‘Daft as brushes’