Friday 20 January 2023 | 14

Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications

Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications

Mis à jour le 21 February 2023

For the first time in more than eighty years, a change in American law will allow testing of new medications without having to use animals, via modern methods based on humans. One Voice, with its German partner within the ECEAE, Doctors Against Animal Experiments, is delighted with this tremendous step and is calling on the EU, as well as Germany and France of course, to follow this example by developing and implementing a development strategy for medications suitable for humans without animal testing.

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The new law, approved by Joe Biden at the end of December 2022, will allow the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve new medications without the need for data resulting from animal testing. Formerly, pharmaceutical companies were required by law to test the safety and efficacy of their drug-candidates in several tests on animals by using as least two species, before being allowed to put them to the test in clinical trials on humans and patients.

« Various data clearly shows the failures of the obsolete animal testing system. On average, 92% of drug-candidates that pass all animal tests are then abandoned in human clinical trials, mainly because they do not work or they have secondary effects. »
Dr Dilyana Filipova, Scientist at Doctors Against Animal Experiments

Animal testing is therefore no longer the only option to approve medications in the United States

Thanks to a new law, modern and relevant techniques for our species, such as mini human organs (‘organoids’), organs-on-a-chip, and computerised methods, can now also be used for regulation purposes in the United States in place of animal testing. Numerous ethical processes have already proven to be more precise and more reliable than tests on animals. A recent study has also shown the toxicity of several compounds on the liver with the help of human liver chips, while former experiments on animals had erroneously classified these same compounds as being harmless.

« Such examples highlight the importance of this legislative change, not only to save countless animals from horrific tests and atrocious deaths, but also to ensure better safety for patients. »
Dr Dilyana Filipova

An openness to ethics but not a paradigm shift

Animal testing, however, is not banned by the new law and remains allowed as a possible testing method. Nevertheless, the fact that pharmaceutical businesses are no longer bound by law to carry out tests on animals and are free to use these precise procedures, suitable for humankind and without using animals, represents huge progress.

While the United States is introducing this modern legislation and turning to the future, certain tests on animals in the EU, and therefore also in France, are still required by law for the approval of medications. In Germany, the percentage of regulation animal tests is around 17%. This percentage has reached 31% in France.

Will the European Union make up for their tardiness?

One Voice, like its German partner, asked the European Commission to establish and immediately implement a progressive elimination strategy for animal testing, a defective system if ever there was one, as requested by more than one million people who have signed the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).

« Europe must use the United States as a model and no longer carry out tests on animals for medications. If we want to develop better treatments and keep up with the global drug market, we must rely on the most modern, effective, reliable methods based on humans, and not on animal testing which has proven to be ineffective. »
Dr Filipova.

More information and sources:

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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olivo | Monday 13 February 2023

STOP à l'expérimentation des médicaments et de toutes substances, sur nos amis les animaux.

Patricia | Monday 30 January 2023

Nos gouvernants attendront que tous les autres pays changent leur loi pour arriver à réagir intelligement, mais "petit espoir" parce que ce n'est pas gagné. Ils vont certainement trouver une idée fumante à nous servir pour éviter d'appliquer des décisions intelligentes et plus humaines.

marie-claude | Sunday 29 January 2023

En Amérique, au moins ces animaux ne souffriront plus au contraire de la France, mais nous sommes toujours en retard sur les choses humaines.

marie-claude | Sunday 29 January 2023

Que la France adopte la méthode Américaine, il ni aurai plus la souffrance animale, enfin, mais comme d'habitude, la France a une longueur de retard.