Research Modernization NOW provides a roadmap for revitalizing the U.S. biomedical research enterprise.
Numerous scientific studies and reviews reveal that experiments on animals fail to lead to effective treatments and cures for many debilitating and deadly human diseases. Reliance on animal studies diverts funds away from more promising areas of research, delays the development of effective drugs and treatments, and limits our ability to protect human health.
Approximately 47% of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget, which oversees Americans’ health, funds experiments on animals.
We need a better way—and our scientists have devised it. Research Modernization NOW outlines a road map for optimizing our nation’s investment in research to cure disease—by ending funding for ineffective strategies (i.e., experiments on animals) and focusing on human-relevant research. In 2021, after colleagues presented the a similar plan to members of the European Parliament, that body passed (almost unanimously) a resolution calling on the European Commission to create an action plan to end all experiments on animals.
The U.S. urgently needs such a plan. Science Advancement & Outreach is releasing this new and improved strategy, emphasizing the urgency of shifting the biomedical research paradigm away from animal use.
Research Modernization Now provides a framework for policymakers, funders, companies, and researchers to plan the necessary interventions to phase out experiments on animals and phase in human-relevant research.
By the numbers:
Animals are heavily used in preclinical studies, yet up to 89% of these studies are not reproducible, despite reproducibility being a critical component of scientific research.
Ninety-five percent of all new drugs that test safe and effective in animal studies fail in human clinical trials, most because they don’t work or are harmful to humans.
The failure rate of new drugs developed using animals in specific disease research areas exceeds 95%. Here are a few examples:
What Does Research Modernization NOW Propose?
Research Modernization NOW maps out a strategy for replacing the use of animals in experiments with human-relevant methods. It includes the following:
- Ending animal use in research areas where animals have been shown to be poor “models” of humans and their use has impeded scientific and medical progress.
- Conducting systematic reviews of the efficacy of animal use to identify additional areas where non-animal methods are available or animal use has failed to protect human health and can, therefore, be ended.
- Redirecting funds from animal studies to reliable, non-animal methods.
- Implementing a harm-benefit analysis system for animal studies includes an ethical perspective and considers the lifelong harm inflicted on animals.
- Educating and training the scientific community on the benefits of, and how to use, non-animal approaches.
Compassion and scientific breakthroughs aren’t mutually exclusive. Good science and sound ethics can propel us toward the shared goal of better health.
—What You Can Do—
This transformation can begin today. Without it, the research funded by U.S. taxpayers will fail to yield the discoveries and applications needed to protect human health.
Please send a polite e-mail to your members of Congress, urging them to put Research Modernization NOW into action.