This is a loaded question and you probably won't find two people with identical answers. The very basic concept of animal research is that mammals are, essentially, similar. Mice and rats are commonly used for drug testing because they are small (therefore, easy to keep many of them together in a small space. They have the same basic organ systems as we do. Mice are more commonly used for transgenic studies because their oocytes are easier to manipulate. Rats are larger, so certain organ systems are easier to study. Various other animals are used with similar frequency (Guinea Pigs, Rabbits, Ferrets, Chimps, Pigs, Cats, and Beagles). The choice of the animal depends on the testing that needs to be done. For instance, pigs have pink skin, so they are commonly selected for testing make-up and sunscreens. Pigs, dogs, and chimps are MOST like us -- biologically speaking, so PKDM studies done in those animals are often more enlightening than studies done in rodents.
I'm in biomedical research and the one key point for you to understand is that, despite the huge numbers of animals used and our insistance that animals are good surrogates for our studies, rats are NOT human. Neither are pigs or dogs. So, no matter how well a drug works in a pig, there are NO guarantees that it will work the same in a human. Unfortunately, they are the closest we can get until animal rights and human rights are on par with one another.
The FDA's decisions about whether or not to send a drug to clinical trials is NOT based solely on data from rodent studies. There are MANY other cell-based and in-silico studies that are considered before human subjects can be used for safety testing.What do we have in common with rats that make them the choice animal for testing?
Let me start off by saying you have a terrible misconception about FDA approval on medications. To develop a medication it takes an average of 7-10 years and around 100-200 million dollars. Before a drug can be put on the market it has to go through numerous clinical trials that are highly regulated and evaluated. Rats are used as very very very preliminary sample sets.
To answer your question on why rats are used. They have a tendency (more than almost all other animals) to react very similarly to medications as humans would. They are very easy and cheap to take care of. They have relatively short gestation periods. They reach sexual maturity very quickly. They produce large litters of offspring. I'm sure that there are many more reasons, each specific to a certain area of research, but I think those hit the high points.
Besides, what would you use instead of rats? Armadillos? No. Flying squirrels? No. Tuna? No. Eagles? No. Inmates? Maybe. :-)
Nothing, just gives the researchers a living thing to test new ideas on. A most inhumane method that causes pain to any living creature. including dogs. Computers and test tubes would probably produce the same results.
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