Believe it or not: how much can we rely on published data on potential drug targets?

Thermoneutrality, Mice, and Cancer: A Heated Opinion

“…The outcomes of preclinical mouse studies form the basis for understanding disease biology, immune and therapeutic responses, and determining which therapies to take into clinical trials [80][81][82][83]. Many authors have asserted that a major problem in research is irreproducibility [80,81,84,85].…”

“…Many authors have asserted that a major problem in research is irreproducibility [80,81,84,85]. Landis and colleagues point to the general dearth of information on the 'design, conduct and analysis of the experiments' [86].…”

How significant are your data? The need for a culture shift

“…For example, investigators at Bayer Healthcare found only a quarter of 67 seminal studies to be reproducible (Prinz et al 2011). Similarly, investigators at Amgen attempted to replicate 53 studies in basic cancer biology but were able to reproduce only 6 despite often cooperating with the original investigators (Begley and Ellis 2012).…”

“…In the pharmaceutical industry, lack of reproducibility also leads to a waste of resources as invalid targets may be pursued, which further drives up the already escalating costs of drug discovery and development (Prinz et al 2011). For example, a number of major drug companies have stopped or significantly reduced their investment into central nervous system drug research; in many cases, the main argument was that preclinical data failed to translate into clinical efficacy.…”

Acta Diabetologica is 50 and well: long live Acta!

“…Staff at a leading biotech firm were able to replicate the results of only 6 out of 53 landmark papers in cancer [3] M. Porta (&) Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy e-mail: massimo.porta@unito.it and those at another large pharmaceutical firm could only reproduce a quarter of 67 ''seminal'' studies [4] in a trend that increasingly appears to apply to most fields of research. There are many possible explanations for failure to reproduce the Results of a given publication, and they do not necessarily involve misconduct.…”