Will the FDA Nix Requirement For Animal Testing? PETA Urges New Precedent Amid COVID-19

Agency Earns Kudos for Skipping Animal Tests in Search for Coronavirus Therapies—and Receives a Plea to Make Non-Animal Research the New Normal

For Immediate Release:
May 5, 2020

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

In response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to allow companies to skip required tests on animals and head straight to human trials in the search for COVID-19 therapies, PETA sent a letter to the agency applauding the move and urging it to move away from animal experiments completely.

“The novel coronavirus has thrown the inadequacy of cruel, costly, misleading, and time-consuming animal experiments into sharp relief,” says PETA Regulatory Testing Department Science Adviser Jeffrey Brown. “PETA is urging the FDA not to revert to the wasteful status quo and to take this opportunity to prioritize human-relevant, non-animal research methods only.”

Of all new medications that test safe and effective in animals, 95% fail in human clinical trials. PETA’s Research Modernization Deal provides a detailed strategy for replacing the use of animals in experiments with superior, humane scientific research, which would save the lives of millions of animals every year and accelerate drug development for humans suffering from diseases.

The group’s letter to the FDA is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.