Progressive Non-Animal Research Society

07/15/2025

07/15/2025

from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington DC....

We have great news to share.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently hosted a workshop focused on reducing animal testing…

…and both agencies took real, actionable steps that will save animals right away!

Updates from the FDA:

The FDA will take immediate steps to eliminate animal testing in several critical areas: shellfish toxicity testing, rabies and leptospirosis vaccine testing, protein quality evaluation, pyrogen testing, and skin irritation testing. This change will save thousands of rabbits, mice, hamsters, and other animals from horrific experiments each year!

The FDA regulates food, drugs, medical devices, to***co, vaccines, cosmetics, and other products tested on animals, and has been notoriously slow to change. But during the workshop, the FDA announced plans to begin incorporating animal-free, human-based methods, streamline the agency’s policies to include more transparent regulatory requirements, and collaborate with the NIH to utilize existing human-based research data to better predict the safety of chemicals in humans.

Updates from the NIH:

Moving forward, the NIH announced it will no longer fund research proposals that exclusively use animal experiments! Plus, all new agency funding opportunities are required to include consideration for nonanimal methods. This will save lives!

The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, awarding more than 60,000 grants each year, and about half of its budget goes to fund experiments using animals. Until this big announcement, the agency would even go so far as to explicitly encourage researchers to design projects involving animals. This reliance on the suffering and death of animals has led to a system where more than 90% of drugs that pass in animal tests fail in human trials.

But now that’s all about to change. These changes by the FDA and the NIH are sending a clear message: Human-based research leads to better understanding and treatments of human diseases, saves innocent animal lives, and is the future of science and medicine.

The Physicians Committee has been at the forefront of advocating for these changes and working directly with the FDA and the NIH to advance superior and cruelty-free, human-based methods. We’ve trained thousands of scientists and policymakers—including FDA and NIH staff—on nonanimal methods, engaged with international regulatory bodies to shape global testing requirements, submitted expert guidance on human-based methods, and so much more!

Read more about the significance of these announcements—and the steps PCRM took to get us here today—in our news release and Good Science Digest.

Your support makes these victories possible. Although these recent announcements are crucial steps toward reducing animal testing, there’s still so much work to be done—and PCRM won’t stop fighting until EVERY cage is empty. Thank you for standing with us!

Sincerely,

Neal Barnard, MD
President
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine




Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20016

202-686-2210 | info@pcrm.org | PCRM.org | Unsubscribe

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07/11/2025

So many wins for replacing animal testing shared today!

After many years working on this issue, I’m ecstatic to finally see mainstream acknowledgment of the need and benefits of replacing animal use, connected to clear action items.

My FDA highlights:
- Commissioner Marty Makary and Senior Advisor Tracy Beth Hoeg recognize scientific, business, and ethical advantages of nonanimal methods, and that replacing animal testing is a nonpartisan, unifying issue
- FDA will widely publish NAMs use cases
- FDA will provide clear agency policies on NAMs that industry can rely on, including clear and open regulations
- Short term, FDA will replace animals in skin irritation, pyrogen/endotoxin testing, certain batch and potency testing
- Strong leadership is bringing thoughtful people/opinions out of the woodwork with thoughtful solutions
- FDA will work at international level because many companies are global and will test for the least common denominator, ie, animal testing
- FDA and NIH will collaborate to utilize existing human data for better predicting safety in humans

My NIH highlights:
- DPCPSI Acting Director Nicole Kleinstreuer recognizes nonanimal methods as lasting solution to replacing animal use in research and testing
- NIH investment is shifting/reprogramming to methods rooted in human biology
- NIH will build up infrastructure and robust support for human-based science to combat entrenched animal use
- NIH will no longer seek proposals exclusively for animal models, all funding announcements will emphasize human-based methods
- NIH demonstrates issue with reviewers requiring animals even where sponsor seeks to avoid using animals, and calls for serious actions to stop assuming animal testing will be best predictive model because not clinically relevant

My ARPA-H highlight:
- Catalyst to launch case study to use in silico tools to replace animal use in IND

Provide your comments to FDA via the link to livestream. FDA will soon put out an action plan related to this meeting.

Science is recentering to human biology to improve human health and save animals.

Buckle up!!

https://lnkd.in/gNctgjbd
View Nicole Kleinstreuer’s graphic link
Nicole KleinstreuerNicole Kleinstreuer
• 3rd+3rd+
Acting NIH Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH)Acting NIH Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
4d • 4 days ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

05/23/2025

A prominent scientist speaks about the ongoing use of dogs in research, in this era of sophisticated non-animal methods

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05/14/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/16Ztm6ZEp8/

PART 1 (of 4) A few days ago, The Beagle Alliance rescued their first two lab dogs. I was there. On the way home, as the sun was setting, I wrote this reflection— a scientist bearing witness to freedom, and the failures that came before it. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚.....

05/02/2025

Certara Launches Non-Animal Navigator™ Solution to Help Drug Developers Reduce Reliance on Animal Testing...

04/25/2025

https://worlddayforlaboratoryanimals.org/replacing-animals/

Replacing the use of animals in research can involve one-to-one replacement or a combination of advanced techniques such as epidemiological studies of human populations, research into human genetic…

04/12/2025

FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs

03/12/2025

The BC Foundation for Non-Animal Research (BCFNAR) is accepting grant applications for research funding (closes April 30th, 2025).

Who are they?

Founded in 1970, the British Columbia Foundation for Non-Animal Research (BCFNAR) shepherds and honours the legacy of Evelyn Martin, R.N. in an effort to replace the use of animals in medical research, testing and education.

The Foundation provides grants to emerging or established scientists for biomedical experiments or teaching methods that do not involve animal use. This can also include capital equipment and software which facilitates the replacement of animal use in teaching or training.

The Foundation is also committed to supporting a diverse range of creative methods that challenge the use of animals in research, testing, and education and encourages the adoption of alternatives to harmful animal use across Canada.

How to Apply for a Grant

The BC Foundation for Non-Animal Research accepts applications for funding between January 1st and April 30th of each year. Successful applicants will be notified in April.

We encourage a diversity of applicants to further the development and discourse of non-animal research. Priority will be given to applications that have a clear goal, which are timely, and which have a profound affect on thought and practice.

The Foundation provides grants to emerging or established scientists for biomedical experiments, development of testing methods and teaching curriculum that do not involve animal use. This may also include capital equipment and software which facilitates the replacement of animal use in teaching or training.

The Foundation is also committed to supporting a diverse range of creative methods that challenge the use of animals in research and promotes alternatives in research, testing and education.

Please visit www.bcfnar.ca to apply

Image by Fernando Zhiminaicela from Pixabay

06/05/2024

In the news: See the latest ways that scientists are helping to heal human maladies — from COVID to cancer — without ever harming a monkey, a mouse, a dog, or any other animal in a laboratory.