Comparative and Translational Medicine: the integration of veterinary and human clinical research

6:40 PM - 7:20 PM

There is a growing integration between veterinary and human medicine. This presentation will review the history of translational and comparative medicine, comparative diseases, and the alignment of human and veterinary clinical research. The clinical research integration trend is driven by various factors, such as companies seeking to enter the animal health market. However, another key factor is drug development failure rates. Historically, the pharmaceutical industry has relied on pre-clinical lab animal model studies, often termed “translational”, to predict human safety and efficacy outcomes. However, excessive phase I-III drug failure rates call into question the utility of lab animal model studies and the term “translational”. In turn, drug failure rates raise the need to identify solutions.
Contrary to lab animal models, veterinary patients share many naturally occurring comparable diseases to humans. In addition, veterinary patients share similar treatments, comorbidities, environmental conditions, phenotypic diversity and genetics with humans. These similarities are further driving the integration of human and veterinary clinical research and may reshape the future of drug development. Importantly, this integration may have substantial impact on scientific terminology and medical writing.