The Hidden Zoo of Drug Testing

When you picture animal testing, you probably see lab mice. But the real landscape is a sprawling zoo — dogs for cardiac safety, pigs for wound healing, ferrets for respiratory viruses, and macaques for neuroscience. This episode explores why species choice determines whether a drug reaches humans or dies in preclinical trials. We unpack model validity, the tacit knowledge researchers develop after years with one species, and how the TGN1412 disaster reshaped regulatory requirements. With AI accelerating drug discovery, animal model expertise has become the critical bottleneck in translation.