Re: We need better animal research, better reported
Sir -
Fiona Godlee, in her editorial (BMJ 2018; 360:k124), seems to have swallowed a particular paper (that she has chosen to publish) hook line and sinker. In fact, as Editor, she should recognize her own limitations. She has no experience or expertise in vaccine development. Furthermore, she seems to have no insight that in all aspects of medicine, the small proportion of things that work in animals that can be demonstrated to also be effective in man, and the few product licences that result from some exponential multiple of early-phase human studies, let alone animal studies. There is nothing extraordinary about a failed mapping of animal studies to clinical trial results at all. Meanwhile, the suspicion is that the Editor will add this to her arsenal of anti-industry evidence by implying malfeasance where there is none.
Rapid Response:
Re: We need better animal research, better reported
Sir -
Fiona Godlee, in her editorial (BMJ 2018; 360:k124), seems to have swallowed a particular paper (that she has chosen to publish) hook line and sinker. In fact, as Editor, she should recognize her own limitations. She has no experience or expertise in vaccine development. Furthermore, she seems to have no insight that in all aspects of medicine, the small proportion of things that work in animals that can be demonstrated to also be effective in man, and the few product licences that result from some exponential multiple of early-phase human studies, let alone animal studies. There is nothing extraordinary about a failed mapping of animal studies to clinical trial results at all. Meanwhile, the suspicion is that the Editor will add this to her arsenal of anti-industry evidence by implying malfeasance where there is none.
Competing interests: No competing interests