Ethical Research. Healthier Futures.

Biologic Therapies

BIOLOGICS

For most of our lifetimes, medicines have come in the form of small molecules. These chemical synthesized drugs are usually of a low molecular weight, are well characterized, and are relatively simple to produce. Biologics have broken down prior barriers creating new hope for patients. Biologics are large, complex and often difficult to characterize molecules, which are created through a multistep biologic process. Examples include vaccines, cells, antibodies, proteins, blood or tissues. Sometimes they are less of a “drug” and more of a therapeutic process. A few such treatments include teaching the immune cells outside of the patient’s body to attack its cancer or delivering a functional replacement for a non-functioning gene, a technique referred to as gene therapy.

Development of these types of new treatments for cancer, autoimmune disease, heart disease, infectious disease, post-transplant organ rejection and genetic disorders are dependent upon using animals that are closely related to or the same species as the species intended to benefit from the new therapy. These limitations make it typically necessary to use (non-human) primates to assess the safety and efficacy for biologics intended for human patients.  

For therapies to treat animal diseases, such as a biologic medication intended to treat dogs, research dogs are required to develop the new therapy. Biologic therapies are already available to benefit dogs and cats with allergic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis and osteoarthritis. These advanced treatments of debilitating diseases improve the lives of pets and their owners. Scientific research is seeing promise in the treatment of pet infectious diseases, such as canine parvovirus, where a treatment to neutralize the virus has dramatically reduced the mortality in infected puppies. This is a new area of medical research for many species of animals and continues to show promise for the future.

Some examples of recent biologics include:

• Trastuzumab, pertuzumab and ribociclib treat breast cancer
• Rituximab treats non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibodies like adalimumab, risankizumab-rzaa, tofacitinib and secukinumab are bringing a better quality of life to patients with immune-mediated diseases like psoriatic and rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, plaque psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis.
• Gene therapies are saving the lives of patients with cancer such as lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma, and rare genetic diseases like spinal muscular atrophy, and prolonging the lives of patients with sickle cell disease, hemophilia A, beta thalassemia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  
• CAR-T therapy has revolutionized treatment for lymphomas and leukemias by training a patient’s own immune cells in how to battle their own cancer. 

Examples of Common Treatments Developed With Animal Models