UN LAB Middleware Label: End Names
French drug maker Sanofi has so far turned down an invitation to join the right side of the story and stop using the mindless near drowning test that most of its competitors have already turned down. Please help us show the importance of walking in the light.
Sanofi and its subsidiary Genzyme have used more than 1,500 small animals – 803 mice and 706 rats – in a forced swim test since the mid-1990s to test 15 experimental compounds. None of the drugs have been approved for use in humans.
This is not surprising, because the forced swimming test is devoid of relevant scientific knowledge and full cruelty. In it, experimenters often dose small animals with the test substance and place them in the inevitable containers of water. In a panic, animals try to escape by scratching and scratching their sides, or diving under water in search of a way out. They row violently, trying to keep their heads above the water. Eventually they will float.
The test supposedly simulates human depression and claims to test the effectiveness of antidepressants. This is as funny as it sounds.
Sanofi’s competitors think so too. Following discussions with PETA and its affiliates, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, AbbVie Inc., Roche, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk A / S, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb have announced that they will no longer conduct (or fund other participant to conduct a) forced swim test.
But for now, Sanofi decided to swim against the tide. PETA US and PETA UK have written to him six times over the past year. Here’s everything we got in return: “[Sanofi] cannot and will not be promising to comment on the use of this or that test ”. However, in the past, the company has commented and resolved equally specific issues, including the ban on the use of animals in sales training. Now he must take the same pro-animal, pro-scientific position.
Please take the time to take action and urge Sanofi to join some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and ban this useless test.