Vaccines and Immunization

Animal Models & Clinical Trials

The development of human vaccines continues to rely on the use of animals for research. Regulatory authorities require novel vaccine candidates to undergo preclinical assessment in animal models before being permitted to enter the clinical phase in human subjects. Substantial progress has been made in recent years in reducing and replacing the number of animals used for preclinical vaccine research through the use of bioinformatics and computational biology to design new vaccine candidates. However, the ultimate goal of a new vaccine is to instruct the immune system to elicit an effective immune response against the pathogen of interest, and no alternatives to live animal use currently exist for evaluation of this response, Animal models play a vital role in the preclinical phase of drug development and are instrumental in advancing medical research. These models, which encompass a variety of species ranging from rodents to non-human primates, are used to simulate human diseases, study disease mechanisms, and evaluate the safety and efficacy of potential treatments. Animal models serve as essential tools in bridging the gap between basic research and clinical trials, providing valuable insights into disease pathology and therapeutic interventions before they are tested in human subjects.