Regulatory requirements for the development of medicines

The use of tests on animals to develop medicines is a subject of enormous sensitivity that rightly commands a high level of public interest. None of the modern medicines which benefit society today would have been developed without the appropriate use of laboratory animals. Regulatory authorities world-wide require that all new medicines must be subjected to extensive and prolonged safety testing in animals and in human clinical studies before they are approved for use. These requirements were specifically developed to protect people from potentially toxic effects of new medicines.