Posted by Kanga under blog's category : Communications & media

Five years ago newspaper reports of medical breakthroughs rarely mentioned the animal research that had played a part in creating a medicine or treatment. These articles would usually state that 'laboratory tests' or 'previous research' had shown results positive enough for scientists to contemplate clinical trials in humans. Those of us involved in trying to explain the role of animal research to the public spent long hours trying to persuade university press officers to outlinethe animal research in their press releases, and journalists to report it.

It is so heartening to see the positive results of those long hours: a look at coverage in national papers over just two days last week shows three major 'medical progress' stories, all crediting the animal research that informed them.

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Posted by Kanga under blog's category : Communications & media

UK newspapers these days are full of political sleaze, economic woes and minor celebrities. But there is some good news too. Both The Observer and The Sunday Times this weekend carried prominent stories of medical breakthroughs achieved by British scientists.

Nothing unusual in that, but it was interesting to see that both stories credited the animal research that had informed the progress towards the potential human therapies. Even just a few years ago, journalists often referred to 'laboratory tests' rather than reporting fully the part that animal research plays in medical progress. Including a few words about the in vivo research places animal research in context for the general public reading these stories, and helps to normalise it.

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