Some modern medicines are made from proteins instead of chemicals. These are called biologic drugs. Many of these drugs are monoclonal antibodies. They are used in people to treat pain, inflammation, cancer, and immune diseases.
Because these drugs are made of protein, the body’s immune system may see them as “not normal.” When this happens, the body can make anti-drug antibodies, called ADAs.
ADAs are immune proteins that react to a drug. They can attach to the medicine and sometimes make it work less well. In some cases, they may also be linked to side effects. But just because a body makes ADAs in reaction to a drug does not automatically mean that drug is dangerous or harmful. Many people make ADAs and never have any problems.
In human medicine, doctors and researchers test for ADAs because people often take these medicines for a long time. ADA testing helps show if the immune system is reacting to the drug. It is a tool that helps doctors understand if a reaction might be related to the immune system.
ADAs are a way to test for possible immune reactions to a drug. They help show if a drug might be causing an immune response, but they do not prove that a drug is unsafe.
In animal medicine, ADA testing is not required for drugs used in pets. It can be very expensive and time consuming to create an ADA test. Safety is checked in other ways with veterinarians focusing on what they can see in the patient, such as pain, swelling, fever, behavior changes, bone or cartilage changes, and overall health. If a drug causes harm, it should show up in these real-life signs.
Testing for ADAs in animals is also hard because each species would need its own special test.
The most important question for any medicine is simple: does it help the patient, and is it safe when used correctly?
drbrunke 
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