Huge Progress: NIH Will No Longer Seek to Fund Animal-Only Experiments, Plus More!
In a groundbreaking move that is a crucial first step to modernizing science and sparing millions of animals from miserable lives and deaths in laboratories, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced in a webinar today that when calling for experimental proposals to fund—unlike in the past—it will not include any that are for animal-only studies.
This means, for example, that we won’t see valuable public resources limited to futile attempts to make monkeys serve as a stand-in for humans in HIV research, or genetically manipulate mice to be born with a condition that poorly approximates Down Syndrome.
It’s another monumental step toward bringing the U.S. into the 21st century of science, following the NIH’s and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) previous announcements that they will shift away from tests on animals and instead prioritize non-animal methods.
PETA scientists, researchers, campaigners, and supporters have worked long and hard for years to see this kind of progress, from undercover investigations and campaigns that shut down laboratories and ended funding for experiments on animals, to working with regulators and scientists around the world to develop and approve non-animal methods, and more. We thank NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer for listening.
Today’s webinar discussed various topics, goals, and potential hurdles, highlighting the importance of collaboration and training on non-animal testing. PETA stands ready to support the agencies in achieving their animal-free research goals.
Progress at NIH
One of today’s webinar speakers was Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, an internationally recognized leader in reliable and human-relevant non-animal testing, who is the Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives at the NIH. Dr. Kleinstreuer underscored that this workshop represented a scientific, ethical, and deeply personal commitment and “a long overdue shift towards coordinated, constructive efforts to reduce reliance on outdated animal models and accelerate human-based solutions.” She focused on setting up lasting change and “creating the policy, infrastructure, and partnerships that make sustainable adoption possible so that we’re not only shutting down animal labs overnight, we’re actually developing long-term solutions that ensure that there are no new animal labs that open up in their place.” This, she describes, is how we move from one-offs and side projects to “permanence” of non-animal testing.
Dr. Kleinstreuer also noted that NIH priorities, such as improving human health, “cannot be fulfilled using outdated animal-based models that fail to translate to human outcomes. We must embrace new technology and along with reproducibility and transparency and innovation—all of these are values that are at the heart of NAMs [non-animal methods] adoption and replacement of animal tests.” To end her talk, she made the announcement that “all new NIH funding opportunities moving forward should incorporate language on consideration of NAMs [non-animal methods]. NIH will no longer seek proposals exclusively for animal models.”
For five years before her current role, Dr. Kleinstreuer served as director of the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM). PETA scientists have worked with NICEATM and its support staff for more than a decade, including coauthoring more than 20 peer-reviewed publications that have advanced the use of non-animal toxicology methods that replace animal tests. Dr. Kleinstreuer and her team have been involved in globally advancing methods such as those that have spared countless animals from having chemicals forced into their eyes, injected into their skin, or fed to them for life.
Updates From the FDA
During the webinar, the FDA reiterated that it wants to see the use of more non-animal methods and listed immediate actions it can take, such as incentivizing companies to use non-animal tests, accepting non-animal tests that have already been extensively vetted in Europe and beyond, and publicizing examples of where non-animal tests have been used by companies and accepted by the agency.
Listed among the FDA’s high-priority items were those that PETA has been advocating to end for years, including vaccine testing, pyrogenicity testing, and skin irritation testing on animals.
The changes PETA scientists have championed are starting to take hold and the momentum is building.
More than 110 million animals are used in the U.S. in research and testing each year, but PETA scientists are working hard to end the use of all animals in testing. And we’re starting to see the work of PETA scientists incorporated into agency plans and used to inform next steps. Just recently, after 31 months of PETA’s campaigning, NIH finally ended funding of tests where baby monkeys were deprived of their mothers and had their eyes sewed shut.
This is only the beginning of a revolutionary change in the use of non-animal methods. PETA scientists will be there every step of the way, continuing our collaborative relationship and pushing for science that benefits all living beings.
What You Can Do
Over the past decade, reliable, human-relevant non-animal approaches have revolutionized the field of research and testing. But there’s still work to do. If you’re in the U.S., please sign the petition to your members of Congress urging them to introduce legislation enacting Research Modernization NOW!
No matter where you live, you can add your name to a letter that PETA scientists will share with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency not to push companies to conduct animal tests to keep their sunscreen products on the market.
