Vol-02 No. 1, January 2012. pmd

particularly controversial. Such tests, which are still
conducted in the U.S., involve general toxicity, eye
and skin irritancy, phototoxicity (toxicity triggered by
ultraviolet light) and mutagenicity
40
.
•
Drug testing
: 
Before the early 20
th
century, laws
regulating drugs were lax. Currently, all new
pharmaceuticals undergo rigorous animal testing
before being licensed for human use. Tests on
pharmaceutical products involve the following
41
:
i)
Metabolic tests
, investigating pharmacokinetics
i.e. how drugs are absorbed, metabolized and
excreted by the body when introduced orally,
intravenously, intraperitoneally, intramuscularly,
or transdermally.
ii) Toxicology tests
, which gauge acute, sub-acute,
and chronic toxicity. Acute toxicity is studied by
using a rising dose until signs of toxicity become
apparent. Sub-acute toxicity is where the drug is
given to the animals for four to six weeks in doses
below the level at which it causes rapid poisoning,
in order to discover if any toxic drug metabolites
build up over time.
iii) Efficacy studies
, which test whether experimental
drugs work by inducing the appropriate illness in
animals. The drug is then administered in a double-
blind controlled trial, which allows researchers to
determine the effect of the drug and the dose-
response curve.