“In Italy, if you do research, you have to go through four committees, to wait months and to pay a fee, if only to touch a mouse in the laboratory ”. The words of Silvio Garattini, president of Mario Negri, in the interview published yesterday on QN Newspapernet, raised the issue of obstacles to animal experiments to develop medicines and vaccines capable of eradicating emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV 2. Giuliano Grignaschi, biologist responsible for Animal care at the State University of Milan, is general secretary of Research4Life, a platform that brings together patient associations, clinical centers and institutions such as Farmindustria, San Raffaele, Airc, Telethon, IIT, Assobiotech, in order to reconcile ethics and health.
Doctor Grignaschi, with theCoronavirus emergency we would like drugs and vaccines immediately ready for use. Why does medicine in Italy get stuck in front of a mouse?
"Because we are the country that has introduced the greatest difficulties in promoting pre-clinical trials, so much so that Brussels has put Italy in arrears for having implemented a directive on the use of animals since 2014 in too restrictive terms (and could not) scientific purposes".
Sacrosanct respect for guinea pigs, but thousands of people die of pneumonia, millions of survivors of the epidemic are at risk of suffering from disabling fibrosis that could affect respiratory capacity. We have absolute urgency for ad hoc treatments. What is happening in the laboratories in the meantime?
"It happens that our brains go abroad, where they find better conditions, and they stay there. Our legislation protects the protection of experimental animals, but without guaranteeing equal operating conditions between bodies working on the latest generation therapies in Europe. In short, a handicap race".
What is the purpose of studying the animal model in Covid-19?
"We need to understand what causes this virus at the level of alterations in a living organism, rather than studying it in separate cell cultures. Starting from here it will be possible to discover effective solutions that lead to treatment. For similar vaccines, we need to verify their safety, understand the reactions in terms of antibody response before reaching humans and large-scale production".
Research is paralyzed in Italy by quibbles?
"Professor Garattini pointed out that the path to be able to give even just one injection to a mouse, a fish, a single animal, passes through interminable evaluations. Issues are also raised in the dossier book “Proibisco, ergo sum” of the Luca Coscioni Association, an association of which I belong as general councilor. At any time, as we have seen for a research that involved the universities of Parma and Turin, you can be stopped. A path full of obstacles in Italy". What do the stakes and objections entail in an animalist key?
"You see, the previous governments, realizing that the restrictive interpretation given by Italy would have blocked the search, and there were no alternatives, has always granted a three-year moratorium in three years, starting in 2014. This year the the Giallorossi government and the ministry of health extended it for a year. Researchers present large-scale projects. Other countries must not be subject to constraints and risks. And this also affects the vaccine rush. If you put a constraint of one year you add an extra difficulty"(Quotidiano.net).