The Future of Miniaturised Organs in Drug Development and Testing

Abstract

Drug development is time consuming and expensive, partly due to the difficulty ofdetermining the safety and effectiveness of drugs in humans. To improve this process,there is a demand for models appropriate for studying the biological effects of drugsearly in their development. This article considers miniaturised organ technology toevaluate the safety and efficacy of medicines and reduce our dependence on animaltesting. Testing drugs on miniaturised organs could also help account for systematicbiases in clinical trial populations. However, ethical concerns exist including patientconsent and the anonymisation of tissue donations. This article considers these keyconcerns and provides policy recommendations for the ethical and responsible use ofminiaturised organ technology.