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Comment by darknavi | Hacker News Reader

To be honest I didn't know the FDA oversaw anything related to pet medication.

Cool product to learn about, large dogs are a blast a it would be lovely to have them live longer with us.

There's a brief post here that is interesting [1] -- I'm unclear when FDA approval is actually required because not all drugs for animals seem to require approval.

There's probably some cross-over too because some drugs are used in humans and pets. Gabapentin, for example, is something we use for our cats and a senior dog with arthritis. It also has uses for Restless Leg Syndrome.

But there's a possible treatment for FIP (a usually fatal disease in cats) that is undergoing approval by the FDA. Why an approval is required I don't know. [2]

While I'm reluctant to test unproven drugs on my pets, we had to say goodbye to a young cat in 2018 because he had FIP and this treatment wasn't available to us at the time. I'd have paid damn near anything to have given him a chance.

[1] https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/medicines-you...

[2] https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institut...

I'd guess for a lot of meds it's mainly a matter of establishing dosing requirements. I've gotten prescriptions for my cats that were just the same drugs you'd get, but in smaller quantities.

The opposite is also interesting. Think about all the drugs that work in rats but not humans. If you have pet rats, they're probably invincible! (More likely is that there is no money in treating pet rats, so actually there aren't any drugs just for them.)

Ah, I see you've never kept pet rats.

There is heaps and gobs of money in treating these guys. They only live a few years and are as personable as dogs. People regularly pay crazy amounts of money for intensive surgeries to take out tumors and fix their varying other ailments.

If someone managed to extend rat lifespans by even a year or two, there'd be a line of people at their door just begging to throw money at them. You'd think rat owners would be more blasé about death, but it couldn't be further from the truth.

Really though, for most illnesses they just get human drugs on a much smaller scale. My vet prescribes metacam when they're very sick, which is also what I got after my last surgery. They get the same antibiotics I've taken previously. Apart from the parasite drugs, I don't think my rats have ever been prescribed something I haven't taken before.

After all, there is a reason we use rats to model drugs in humans

Actually, lab rats are special genetic lines that are too different from pet rats, so it's untested if the drugs that extend the life of lab rats will also work on pet rats.

Not even other rats benefit from animal experiments.

Yes. And why should the FDA's tentacles infiltrate and delay this activity?

Your phrasing implies some nefarious intent behind the FDA. What about the FDA do you not like?

Not nefarious. Its incentives cause it to overvalue safety relative to avoidable mortality and morbidity.

You could do worse than starting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/heres-why-rapid-covid-tes...

Not the OP, but the FDA evaluates safety and efficacy. They tend to put more focus on the safety vs the efficacy, so its risk reward may be overly conservative if you are dying. Its also an organization that is susceptible to political influence and bribery. For example look into the approval of Oxycontin and the lack of approval of European sunscreens.

Because of the long history of snake-oil salescreeps, and the ongoing degree of utter bullshit of people selling crystals, essential oils, and other shams to separate desperate and hopeful people from their money?

Regulators and regulations have problems, but the entire reason we have them is due to unregulated corruption that caused massive harm before the regulators were created.

The majority of snake-oil salesmen in the world don't come under the FDA's jurisdiction.

Well, they don't let you sell snake oil in their jurisdiction, so that's to be expected.

If the snake oil salesperson claims their product is used to treat or cure any disease, then it's absolutely under FDA jurisdiction.

That's funny, I was just having this same conversation yesterday from my local guy who sells mercury radium soda pop.

All you have to do is sell your snake oil as a """supplement""" instead of a medicine and you evade basically all regulation. You can sell actual poison to actual children as a "homeopathic" remedy for teething in babies, as long as you say "all our health promises we make on the front of the bottle aren't backed by the FDA".

Edit: Removed probably dumb and wrong rant about controlled pharmaceuticals

What is the actual poison that's used for a teething remedy?

Belladonna

I wonder why

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