Lawmakers, governors, public health agency leaders want to expedite transition to human-relevant testing methods and to halt unethical, ineffective, costly uses of primates
Washington, D.C. — The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action welcomed news from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to gauge the feasibility of transitioning the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) into a primate sanctuary – the latest indicator of the growing consensus that primate use is neither effective nor financially practical in addressing human disease threats.
In May 2025, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy urged NIH Director Bhattacharya to defund all NPRCs, including ONPRC, and redirect billions in savings to better science. Our animal wellness groups continue to assert that the continued use of monkeys is unsound science and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Twenty U.S. lawmakers, including leaders of key health committees, concurred with those sentiments and wrote in December to Dr. Bhattacharya calling on him to wind down the use of primates in invasive tests and to direct research monies to methods grounded on human-based biology. State lawmakers, led by Rep. David Gomberg, D-Oregon, and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has also called for a movement away from primate use at OHSU.
Documents released ahead of a February 9, 2026 public meeting of the Board of Directors of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) confirm that NIH has encouraged OHSU to explore converting the Oregon National Primate Research Center into a sanctuary.
“This is the moment to start the wind-down of invasive, costly, ineffective experiments on other primates,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Clinging to outdated animal models no longer makes scientific or ethical sense and converting ONPRC is a duty we must honor.”
The OHSU resolution outlines a 180-day negotiation period with NIH and includes interim steps to pause primate breeding where feasible and halt new grant applications for new studies requiring primate use at ONPRC.
“The momentum to end primate experimentation is undeniable,” said Tamara Drake, director of research and regulatory policy at the Center for a Humane Economy. “Now NIH and OHSU must lock in a real transition with firm timelines, public accountability, and permanent sanctuary protections for every animal.”
This transition would position the university as a national leader in modern biomedical research by moving beyond outdated animal models and investing in cutting-edge, human-relevant science that delivers faster, safer, and more predictive results.
“Modern science is already outperforming animal models with faster, safer, and more predictive human-relevant methods,” said Dr. Zaher Nahle, senior scientific advisor for the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action. “The FDA has already ended primate testing for certain drug safety assessments because animal-free alternatives exist. This proposed repurposing could accelerate a nationwide shift away from animal experimentation and prompt a serious review of primate research across all National Primate Research Centers – a step we requested from the NIH.”
The movement away from the use of primates was made possible by the enactment of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 in 2022, eliminating an 84-year-old animal testing mandate for new drug development. Follow up legislation, the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 passed the Senate in December and is broadly supported in the House.
Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are calling on OHSU and NIH to:
- Establish a binding roadmap with public deadlines for ending invasive primate research at ONPRC and begin looking at similar outcomes at other federally funded primate centers.
- Implement a full moratorium on new primate protocols and breeding during negotiation.
- Define sanctuary standards that prohibit invasive experimentation and guarantee lifelong care.
- Include animal protection and sanctuary experts in all transition planning and not allow any transfer of funds for invasive experiments to other research facilities.
The legislative debate over the measure underscores that primates and other animals are not reliable in forecasting the safety and efficacy of drugs, failing in human clinical trials in more than 90 percent of cases. The lack of reliability of animal tests delayed drug delivery to patients, put them at risk from adverse reactions, and drove up costs by swelling R&D costs in drug development.
“Primate testing is an expensive, dead-end pathway, and Congress, Governor Kotek, and the leaders at America’s major public health institutions see the issue similarly,” added Drake. “OHSU must understand that it operates only with the support of the American public and tax dollars used for the bulk of its programs.
The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action, consistent with the vision of federal lawmakers, want to see that the ONPRC transition becomes a model for phasing out primate experimentation across the six other National Primate Research Centers in California, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.