The long history of primate vivisection

Primate experimentation has a long and ugly history. An interesting short essay in this week's BMJ reminds us of these ancient roots.

Writer Wendy Moore gives us a history lesson in quackery featuring Claudius Galen, a Roman doctor who insisted that bloodletting restored internal balance and health. Moore writes:

"Letting blood at specific points was his favourite remedy for restoring balance; he once denounced a quack for letting blood from the “wrong arm.”

His daily dissections of apes, pigs, and sheep led him to numerous mistaken conclusions on the human body, which remained unchallenged until the 16th century."

And yet science and society remain chained and shackled by the fallacious conclusions of vivisection even today. This despite the fact glaring evidence of its failures:

• 99% of drug candidates fail without making it to human clinical trials


• Of those drugs "proven" safe and effective in animals, 92% (more for cancer meds) fail in human trials.


• Of those drugs that make it through human clinical trials and end up on the market, approximately 40% undergo major relabeling or are eventually withdrawn. This despite the fact that relatively few drugs undergo rigorous post-marketing evaluation.