ANIMAL TESTING OF DRUGS

leave out from `House' to end and insert `is concerned about any unnecessary suffering of animals and insists on the toughest possible regulation of medical research using animals to the highest possible welfare standards and only where other effective options are not available; recognises however that medical research using animals is currently both essential and valuable; believes that efforts should be directed at the 3Rs - refining techniques to reduce suffering, replacing animals with non-animal techniques when these become available and reducing as far as possible the number of animals used; notes that complaints against claims made by Europeans for Medical Progress (EMP) that harm is posed to humans through animal experimentation methods have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority; further notes that the polling organisation which asked GPs their views on animal testing has disassociated itself from the interpretation put on the poll by EMP; and notes there have already been numerous independent inquiries into animal research and its efficacy including by a House of Lords Select Committee, the Animal Procedures Committee and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, all of which have concluded that the use of animals in medical research and drug safety testing is valid and, at present, necessary.'.