
TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
Studies with companion animals provide a vast array of benefits that differentiate them from human trials.
- Spontaneous diseases in companion animals recapitulate human diseases much more closely than do diseases induced in laboratory animals, often sharing similar etiologies, progressions, pathobiologies, and molecular changes.
- A higher incidence in dogs of some diseases (e.g. osteosarcoma, lymphoma, or soft tissue sarcoma) that are rare in humans allow studies to enroll and be completed faster.
- Breed predispositions to disease provide a means of identifying underlying mutations and treatable targets that may otherwise be difficult to study in humans.
- An intact immune system provides an ideal background for the study of immunotherapies, tumor microenvironment, and the microbiome.
- Unlike lab animals, companion animals live in the same environment as people and may, like people, have other concomitant diseases.
- Often, lack of standard of care treatments makes it possible to utilize novel therapies in veterinary patients much earlier in the disease process than most human trials.
- A shorter natural lifespan means our dogs and cats progress faster through stages of disease, accelerating study timelines.
- Importantly, positive outcomes in veterinary studies may encourage parallel development of the product for the animal health market, or future off-label use of the product by veterinarians, thus providing novel solutions for veterinary patients in need.