SABRE Research UK was a British

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

raising awareness of the need to remove

bias Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individ ...

from the conduct and scientific evaluation of

animal research Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted ...

. It addressed issues in systematic reviews of animal studies (published results of laboratory animal experiments). The charity was previously known as the Society for Accountability of Animal Studies in Biomedical Research and Education and was constituted in 2005 in response to disquiet about uninformed opinions about the scientific value of animal studies and dissatisfaction with polarised positions in the debate about animal research. The charity reported that neither the proponents of animal research nor its opponents were able to produce sufficiently sound scientific evidence in support of their opposing cases. The charity was independent from

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, animal research advocacy groups, the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry is a medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or self-administered by) patients for curing ...

, animal rights groups or any other vested interests. It did not take a position on the moral, welfare or ethical use of animals in research. Its interests were in the economic costs, the application and relevance of animal research to human health and how the results of animal experiments are analysed, evaluated and interpreted and the resulting data used to inform the design of

clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

History

The formation of the charity followed the publication of an Education and Debate paper in the '' BMJ'' in 2004 which expressed concerns about the lack of scientific evidence to support the claims made by animal research advocates. The paper, itself a systematic review, was the first to call for systematic reviews of animal studies. It also called for the prospective registration of all animal research projects licensed by the

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. The authors were concerned that animal research is not conducted, analysed and reported (published) as rigorously as clinical research, which has reporting standards such as the

CONSORT __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

statement for randomised controlled clinical trials. These measures are considered important as they promote higher standards of research conduct through higher reporting standards. In 2005 a report was published by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics which called for systematic reviews and

meta-analyses Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...

to be carried out in order to "evaluate more fully the predictability and transferability of animal models". The report concluded that "At present, there is a relatively limited number of useful systematic reviews and meta-reviews that address the question of the scientific validity of animal experiments and tests." The report recommended that the programme be funded by the

in collaboration "with major funders of research such as the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

, the MRC, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), animal protection groups and industry associations such as the ABPI". A larger study was published in the BMJ in 2007 which drew attention to a lack of communication between animal researchers and clinical researchers and "identified a gap in knowledge about the usefulness of the volume of animal studies that look at biological mechanisms of disease" and that "more systematic reviews are needed for a quantitative appraisal of the concordance between animal and clinical trials." The review reiterated earlier calls for the Home Office to undertake prospective registration of animal studies. The authors had found that the Home Office showed a lack of interest in the quality of record-keeping needed for preparing systematic reviews.Perel P. et al, Comparison of treatment effects between animal experiments and clinical trials: systematic review. BMJ 2007

SABRE's priorities for research involving animals

* Implementation of the 10Rs+ Strategy to include a full programme of Systematic reviews of existing animal studies before funding any new animal research. http://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-015-0043-7 * Prospective registration of animal studies (to be maintained by the

) with adequate details recorded to inform subsequent systematic reviews. * Adoption and implementation of the new guidelines
The ARRIVE Guidelines
on reporting animal research, by authors, journal editors, peer reviewers, and funding bodies. * A large-scale programme of systematic reviews of existing animal studies (the published results of laboratory animal experiments) to be conducted to assess and monitor the value of animal research to the promotion of human health.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:SABRE RESEARCH UK Systematic review Evidence-based medicine Medical ethics Quality assurance Animal testing in the United Kingdom Ethics and statistics Research in the United Kingdom 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom