As a Senior Pharmacy Technician I worked in a large hospital dispensary and part of my remit was to dispense and help coordinate patient clinical trials. In this time I have seen many trial and marketed drugs being withdrawn due to adverse side effects that never showed up in pre-clinical studies. As a Radiopharmacy Research Technician I synthesize novel brain imaging radiopharmaceuticals for patient clinical trials and research studies. I enjoy the whole concept of creating an imaging agent that could greatly help in the diagnosis of medical conditions. Unfortunately, I believe that in some past research studies some of these radiopharmaceuticals have been tested on animals. This is disheartening, but hopefully my position allows me to voice my opposition and raise awareness of alternatives for any future projects.

I have been studying with the Open University since 2000 towards a degree in Physical Sciences and though it is hard work I do enjoy it immensely. However, I can’t believe that such a forward thinking university still relies so heavily on animal based experiments in its courses, when these results are so well known and documented. There is no point in repeating such unnecessary work just in the name of education when there are now viable alternatives. Students have a right not to be forced to violate their beliefs or ethics as part of their education and as such I would have thought that the OU would be leading the way down this educational path.