Question: how do you test your things? on animals?

Kiran Meekings answered on 15 Mar 2010:

Developing a drug takes 10 years and there’s lots of stages but yes, they will be tested on animals at some stage – it’s the only way to check they’re safe to try in humans. I personally have never done animal testing though! These are the stages of developing a drug:

preclinical: ~2 years: Testing the drug on cells in the lab and testing it in animals.

Phase I: ~2 years: Phase I tests are know as the ‘first in human’ tests. This is the first time a drug is put into humans and it normally requires healthy people so you can know exactly what effects it has. It’s the most risky stage – do you remember in the news a couple years ago there was that trial that went really wrong in North London and a couple people nearly died (their hands and feet went gangrenous and they had to have their fingers and toes cut off – yuck!)

Phase II: ~ 3 years: bigger trials in people with the disease to check whether it has an effect against the disease.

Phase III: ~3 years: Huge trials (thousands of people) to check its safe and has a good enough effect.

Hope that helps answer your question!