Zebrafish in pharmaceutical industry research: finding the best fit

The growing literature on zebrafish disease models and drug safety assessment suggests this organism may have utility in the drug discovery process. Over the past seven years, 24 zebrafish papers have been published with co-authors from pharmaceutical companies, suggesting that the model can be applied to industrial drug discovery. Here we review how the pharmaceutical industry has used zebrafish to date and highlight the hurdles that currently prevent their wider acceptance in drug discovery research.