Anticancer effects of drugs overestimated by as much as 45 percent in animal models

Failure to eliminate bias can skew what we think we know about a drug, waste time and money on trials that prove 'futile' and drive up the price of medications. Only 5 percent of agents that show anticancer activity in preclinical development are eventually licensed while in cardiovascular disease, for example, the rate is 20 percent, say experts.