This being your only option would be poverty, not an alternative to it. And highly dangerous jobs aren't comparison here, testing drugs before animal testing is is no way a level of danger comparable to being a woodcutter
Human testing is necessary, and while the disenfranchised are already subject to it, skipping animal testing and directly proceeding on the most vulnerable would be truly despicable.
Furthermore, if the issue is consent, then this "solution" does not resolve it at all. What you get from subjecting poor people to the choice of cold & hunger or being a test subject is not consent, and once again minorities, disabled people, LGBT and women would be the primary victims
"This being your only option would be poverty, not an alternative to it."
it shouldn't be anyones only option. Extremely dangerous jobs are already lots of peoples only option, and it's a bad thing. That doesn't mean "turn around and torture animals instead"
the problem is, right now there's not much incentive to find cruelty free filters (i.e. making sure a novel compound is "safe enough" for human trials), in fact finding them is disincentivized because animal tests are mandatory. So we should incentivize finding better ways to test and screen new drugs. Not torture animals.
