Can animal data predict human outcome? Problems and pitfalls of translational animal research

Animal models are believed to be predictive for drug development in human health care. While LD 50 studies of drug candidates have always been performed in animals like rodents or dogs, efficacy and adverse effect studies using animals as a model for humans were prompted only in the late 1950s, as a consequence of the thalidomide scandal, where thousands of babies were born with severe extremity deformations.