R&D pipeline

By using "models" such as animals or cells, researchers try to predict the answers they would obtain directly if they could perform the experiments in humans. These models are key components of any R&D project, since the quality of the results obtained relies mainly on the intrinsic ability of the model to predict the human response accurately. In recent years, genetically manipulated animals, like humanized mouse, have proved hugely promising tools to decipher physiological processes. Since the physiology of the animal used is different from human physiology, false positives (very promising results obtained in biological models turned out negative in humans) and false negatives (programs stopped owing to poor results obtained, e.g., in the mouse, even though in humans the results would have been excellent) dramatically reduce the final quality of the research. Therefore, increasing the predictability (ability of a model to predict human physiology) through genetic manipulation is recognized as a key success factor and as the ultimate way to shorten drug development time. Obtained with classical transgenesis or homologous recombination, a humanized mouse is a powerful research tool to decipher in vivo physiology.