Facts and Information on Vivisection

The drug TGN 1412 (for the treatment of leukemia and autoimmune disease) caused life-threatening organ failure in 6 young healthy volunteers in a clinical trial conducted at a London hospital in March 2006. One of the volunteers lost fingers and toes and all participantswere warned of potential long-term risks, including cancer or auto-immune diseases, and significant, lasting injuries.

The drug caused a "cytokine storm"—a catastrophic immune overreaction— specific to the human immune system. It had successfully been tested on several species of animals in pre-clinical testing including macaque monkeys who had tolerated a dose 500 times more than that administered to the human volunteers.

If our closest relative cannot predict human outcomes, why are we continuing to rely on animal data? Human-relevant methods should be the default.