Pfizer Animal Health to study animal-assisted cancer therapy

Pfizer Animal Health has revealed it will conduct a study on animal-assisted therapy for paediatric cancer sufferers.

It will look into how the human-animal relationship may be used in order to improve cancer recovery among children.

Research will be used to measure the effect of therapy on patients and their families as well and it will be conducted as part of a partnership with the American Humane Association.

The group's president and chief executive officer Robin Ganzert suggested that there is positive interaction between youngsters and pets, adding: "Our goal is to fully understand, from a scientific perspective, what is happening in these types of interactions with children undergoing cancer treatment."

In order to establish whether there is a positive relationship, the two organisations will study 150 young cancer sufferers over the next three years and their response to animal-assisted therapy.

Earlier this month, Pfizer Animal Health revealed its sales for the first quarter of 2011 showed a year-on-year increase from results reported for the first three months of last year.