Press Release

  • For Immediate Release:

FDA Modernization Act to End Animal Testing Mandates Included in Year-End Spending Bill

The measure, if enacted, is likely to spare millions of animals torment, deliver safer, more effective treatments and cures to patients

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 is included as a provision in the omnibus spending package released this morning by House and Senate negotiators, setting up the prospect of enacting the measure by the end of Friday. The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 will eliminate a federal mandate for animal testing for new drugs.

H.R. 2565 was introduced in the House in April of last year by Representatives Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Elaine Luria, D-Virg., with the Senate companion bill (S.2952) introduced in October 2021 by Senators Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. Both bills have broad bipartisan support. The legislation mirrors provisions of the original FDA Modernization Act provision approved as an amendment to an FDA legislative package taken up in June by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Rescued beagle with ear tattoo:
Jo-anne Mcarthur/weanimalsmedia.org

The U.S. House of Representatives passed its FDA legislative package for user fee reauthorization in a landslide vote of 392 – 28 in early June after the committee passed the measure 55 – 0. That package included the FDA Modernization Act.

After riders were stripped from the final FDA user fee package, Senators Paul and Booker re-introduced the legislation as S. 5002, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, and that measure passed the Senate by unanimous consent in late September. 

“That the United States must lift an archaic animal-testing mandate for drug development and replace that strategy with 21st-century methods grounded on human biology,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Needless testing on countless beagles, endangered primates, and other animals must come to an end, especially when there are superior alternatives.”

“We are already on the verge of the next phase of modern drug development, and the FDA Modernization Act will be the catalyst for this transition to modern science,” noted Tamara Drake, director of research and regulatory policy at the Center for a Humane Economy.

Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, the Michelson Center for Public Policy, PETA, Animal Protection of New Mexico, and over 200 organizations, medical associations, biotech, and patient advocacy groups have advocated for the passage of this provision since early in the 117th Congress. The legislation has the potential in the coming years to reduce the use of millions of animals and to deliver safer, more effective drugs to patients

The Center for a Humane Economy (“the Center”) is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.

Animal Wellness Action (Action) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all.

The Animal Wellness Foundation (Foundation) is a Los Angeles-based private charitable organization with a mission of helping animals by making veterinary care available to everyone with a pet, regardless of economic ability. We organize rescue efforts and medical services for dogs and cats in need and help homeless pets find a loving caregiver. We are advocates for getting veterinarians to the front lines of the animal welfare movement; promoting responsible pet ownership; and vaccinating animals against infectious diseases such as distemper. We also support policies that prevent animal cruelty and that alleviate suffering. We believe helping animals helps us all.

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