Update – Food & Drug Administration’s Animal Testing Mandate

Authors

Andrew N. Rowan, WellBeing InternationalFollow

Abstract

Following the end of the Second World War, the World Medical Association developed new ethical guidelines regarding research involving human subjects. These guidelines included requirements to obtain informed consent from research subjects but also emphasized the importance of conducting animal research before engaging in human clinical trials and other human research. This principle was included in legislation mandating the FDA to require prior animal research before permitting human trials of new drugs. That mandate was recently eliminated by new US legislation cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker and Rand Paul. The FDA can now encourage non-animal methods and no longer has to require animal tests. In 2016, Dr. Francis Collins, the NIH Director, predicted that the use of animals in the development and testing of new drugs would be primarily replaced by non-animal technologies that “are more accurate, at lower cost and with higher throughput” within ten years. The new legislation frees up the FDA to achieve that outcome.

Recommended Citation

Rowan, Andrew N. (2023) "Update – Food & Drug Administration’s Animal Testing Mandate," WellBeing News: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/wbn/vol5/iss1/3