Suitable tests (From The Oxford Times)

I have read much about the thalidomide tragedy - it is absolutely clear it happened BECAUSE of animal testing.

Thalidomide was originally marketed as a sedative and caused peripheral neuropathy - nerve damage - in around 40,000 people taking it....a tragegy the pro-vivisection lobby don't mention.

Testing on animals, various species, did NOT reveal this serious adverse effect.

The tragedy of birth-deformities happened BECAUSE animal-testing utterly FAILED to predict a serious adverse effect - nerve damage - that would have kept it off the market.

Here are just a few examples of many, many studies -

Lack of peripheral neuropathy in Beagle dogs after 53 weeks oral administration of thalidomide capsules

"In contrast to humans, Beagle dogs did not develop thalidomide-induced peripheral neuropathy"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/11211
239


RABBIT SURAL NERVE RESPONSES...
"Attempts to produce experimental thalidomide neuropathy in laboratory animals have been inconclusive....

All animals gained weight steadily and remained healthy during the entire study period....No animals developed detectable
clinical abnormalities....

The present findings in rabbits demonstrate that thalidomide induces a functional abnormality of sural nerves clearly distinct from the overt neuropathy
described in humans."
http://www3.intersci
ence.wiley.com/cgi-b

in/fulltext/10970784
6/PDFSTART?CRETRY=1&

SRETRY=0

Therapeutic Angiogenesis Inhibits or Rescues Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy

"The lack of significance might be due to... just mild damage to nerves and vasculature... Rats (n=14) were treated by oral application (gavage) of 100 mg/kg thalidomide in 1% carboxymethylcellulo

se (CMC) daily from Monday to Friday for 6 months: a similar protocol was previously used to induce neuropathy in rabbits.44, 45"
http://www.nature.co
m/mt/journal/v15/n1/

full/6300019a.html#f
ig4

Looking at reference 44 -

Experimental thalidomide neuropathy

"Thalidomide neuropathy in man is well established as a distally accentuated, predoominantly sensory polyneuropathy
of the axonal type. In previous studies it has been show that both myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres may be severly affected in human sural nerves .

Experimental studies, however, have not revealed any comparable degree of structural changes in thalidomide neuropathy..."
http://resources.met
apress.com/pdf-previ

ew.axd?code=t6427466
6303241&size=largest


Reference 45

Rabbit sural nerve responses to chronic treatment with thalidomide...

"Three groups of eight rabbits received 100 mg/kg/day thalidomide (group I), 200 mg/kg/day supidimide (a related drug) (group II), or a carboxymethylcellulo

se vehicle (group III) 5 days/week for 40 weeks....

Morphological findings were unremarkable in 20 regions of the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) known to display changes early in toxic neuropathies...

In conclusion, chronic treatment with thalidomide produces selected decrements in sural nerve function that have an
unknown relationship to the poorly reversible sensory neuropathy reported in humans receiving this drug."
http://www3.intersci
ence.wiley.com/journ

al/109707846/abstrac
t

Thalidomide neuropathy:...

"Even less is known about the biochemical basis for thalidomide neuropathy. Experimental work has been hampered by the difficulty in producing the
neuropathy in animals."
http://www.pubmedcen
tral.nih.gov/picrend

er.fcgi?artid=496421
&blobtype=pdf

ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR THALIDOMIDE PHARMION
International Nonproprietary Name: THALIDOMIDE (2008)

"Repeat-dose toxicity studies in rats and dogs did not show any important safety concerns. One of the most important clinical safety concerns, peripheral neuropathy, has not been observed in the nonclinical toxicity studies.

It appears that the animal models (see table 5) are poorly predictive for thalidomide toxicity in humans....

Animal studies have demonstrated differences in species susceptibility to the teratogenic effects of thalidomide. In humans, thalidomide is a proven teratogen...

Animal studies have demonstrated differences in species susceptibility to the teratogenic effects of thalidomide."
http://www.emea.euro
pa.eu/humandocs/PDFs

/EPAR/thalidomidepha
rmion/H-823-en6.pdf

Thalidomide Resistance Is Based on... (2008)

"The rapid and fatal approval of thalidomide at that time ultimately was a consequence of the sole use of
thalidomide-insensit
ive species in animal toxicity tests...."
http://pubs.acs.org/
doi/abs/10.1021/mp80

01232