Victory! India Ends Re-Testing of Drugs on Animals for New Drug Registrations

March 18, 2016

Following appeals from PETA India and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has amended its regulations to prevent testing on animals for new drug registrations when complete data already exist for drugs approved abroad. Because of the vast physiological and biochemical differences between humans and the rats, mice, and other animals used in toxicity tests, the results are often misleading, but regulators still typically require animal tests for drugs. “By ending redundant and painful tests on animals, the Indian government will be sparing the lives of potentially hundreds of thousands of animals each year,” says PETA India research associate Dr. Dipti Kapoor. “PETA India will continue to work to prevent other animals from being painfully and lethally poisoned in archaic, unreliable tests.”