The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set out proposals for a New Alternative Methods Program to focus on replacing, reducing and refining the use of laboratory animals through the adoption of cutting-edge alternative methods.

The FDA’s stated aim is to produce findings that are more relevant to humans, streamline product development and reduce costs. The move will affect approval of new pharmaceuticals and medical devices as well as cosmetics. “A mouse or a rat doesn’t always handle or process medicines in the same way humans do,” said FDA chief scientist Dr Namandjé Bumpus. “Developing more in vitro systems based on human cells, human tissues and human models could, in some instances, be more predictive,” she added.  

Following a European Commission report stating up to 12 million animals were bred and killed for the purpose of animal testing in 2017 without being used in actual experiments, a 2021 European Parliament vote approved plans to phase out animal testing in research. At the time of publication, neither the FDA nor the European Parliament had announced a timeline for ending animal testing.