How Often Are Mice Studies Actually Successful?
I see that mice are often used in studies for medicine before they are tested on humans such as this article posted recently on this site in regards to balding (here). I am not sure if anyone would have this information readily available, but how often is medicine that is successful in mice also successful in humans? I am curious to a percentage of a success/fail rate.
Thank you for your very informative site!
Animals such as mice, dogs, monkeys, etc are often used in medicine. In general, it may take many years for the study to leap from animal trials to human trials. With respect to the success and failure rates of such studies ever making to human trials, I would wildly guess that there are way more failures than successes… but I don’t have precise figures to satisfy your curiosity.
This is extremely difficult to answer because most animal studies, whether positive or negative, do not lead to human trials, where a success/failure ratio can be determined. In fact, 70% of drugs never get past animal stages for many reasons but mainly toxicology/safety concerns. Of those drugs that progress to Phase 2 (initial efficacy) studies, 70% do not progress. Of those that make it to Phase 3 (confirmatory safety and efficacy), about 50% do not progress in development. In general, the value of animal studies largely depend upon the animal model used; some are known not to be very predictive (e.g., for stroke) and others are known to be highly predictive (e.g., for bacterial infections). There are many mouse and rat models of alopecia (not androgenic alopecia) and I do not know how predictive they are.