Modernize Testing
Animal testing is outmoded because, unlike human biology-based test methods, animals are unreliable predictors of human response, delaying treatments and cures to patients and driving up drug costs.
The Issue
The Federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act requires animal testing for safety and efficacy in drug development for human drugs, to the exclusion of human-biology based non-animal test methods. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry uses millions of animals a year, including primates and dogs – one of the biggest categories of testing involving animals.
The Center's microsite has a wealth of information on animal testing
Leaders
Harvard’s Wyss Institute announced the development of a human “body-on-a-chip” platform that enables in-vitro prediction of drug behaviors in humans.
Emulate leverages human biology + technology to ignite a new era in human health.
BICO is replacing outdated methods for drug discovery to end animal testing once and for all.
Quris’ AI Cinical Prediction Platform better predicts which drug candidates will safely work in humans, avoiding tremendous costs of failed clinical trials.
AxoSim empowers advancements in human neuroscience and accelerates the drug development process through their human-relevant drug discovery platform
The Business Case
The Food and Drug Administration must lift its requirement that drugs be tested on animals prior to approval. Private and public laboratories adept at using non-animal alternative methods that are reliable, time-saving and cost-efficient will have a distinct advantage in the marketplace.
Recent Victory
With a bi-partisan vote of 392 to 28, the House passed the FDA Modernization Act as a rider to a larger package of FDA-related reforms, strengthening the chance of enactment this summer for a measure that would eliminate a statutory animal testing mandate for new drug development. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will soon hold a “markup” hearing on parallel legislation, which also includes the FDA Modernization Act as a rider.
While we still have work to do as the House and Senate work to reconcile differences in the two FDA legislative packages, we are on the path to see the adoption of a major national new policy to reduce animal testing and unleash the use of alternative test methods in our national efforts to test drugs formulated to cure or palliate disease.
