| From | Wayne Pacelle <[email protected]> |
| Subject | There’s no good that comes from spending $1B on outdated primate tests |
| Date | May 13, 2025 10:38 PM |
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͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ [link removed] [[link removed]]
Dear friend,
Without question, we are at the dawn of a new era when it comes to reducing painful and ineffective animal tests and replacing them with 21st-century human-relevant testing methods.
Last month, I celebrated the extraordinary news that the FDA, under the leadership of Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., is seeking to phase out the use of animals in drug testing. Dr. Makary said that in a few short years, animal tests “will be the exception and not the norm.”
Remarkably, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya followed up with a similar announcement for the work of his agency, which is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. He’s already announced that he’s shut down the last of the beagle testing laboratories on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Makary’s announcement was a direct response to the political gains we made in our Modernize Testing campaign—specifically our successful effort in 2022 to pass the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA) 2.0 and our ongoing work to ensure implementation of that law by passing FDAMA 3.0.
The serial announcements from the two leaders of the two most important public health agencies in the world are an earthquake in the trillion-dollar global pharmaceutical sector and also in the university settings and private research labs where biomedical research is also conducted.
But the infrastructure of animal testing was built over the last century, and it will not be easily or quickly disassembled. We cannot expect this kind of grand change that Dr. Makary and Dr. Bhattacharya have promised to be self-executing.
We now must work with them and drive actions to apply their visions in very practical ways.
Time to Shut Down the National Primate Testing and Breeding Facilities
Today, I wrote to Dr. Bhattacharya and asked that he begin the process of winding down the work of 14 National Regional Primate Centers and related facilities that collectively house and use 50,000 primates.
This is a staggering number of highly intelligent, sociable animals. They suffer when they endure invasive experiments. When they live in small cages. When they are isolated from their kind. When they are consumed with a feeling of hopelessness. These Old World monkeys face psychological torments in such an alien, unforgiving setting.
The NIH and other public health agencies cannot logically stand by their clear-eyed vision for 21st-century drug screening and basic research in America and then allow the old, inefficient machinery of animal models to remain in place.
Dr. Makary has embraced better science and says that humane-relevant testing methods “should be replacing animal testing.” He’s keenly aware of the ethical problems with continued animal testing that doesn’t forecast human outcomes.
God did not make these animals on planet earth for us to do cruel things to them and subjugate them. It does not seem right. So, we are doing everything we can and we’re taking a lot of steps to reduce animal testing requirements and to stop unnecessary animal testing. (FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, April 17, 2025 [[link removed]] )
Saving Money, Saving Animals, Saving Human Patients in Crisis
Especially with Dr. Makary’s announcement, it seems wrong on fiscal and moral grounds for the federal government to continue to fund seven regional centers that send primates into invasive experiments and breed more primates for that purpose.
The National Primate Research Centers received approximately $88 million in 2023 for base grants, and there are millions spent on top of base funding for these. Over the next 10 years, this expense to taxpayers will be more than a billion dollars for strategies that the FDA commissioner and other science leaders note are counterproductive to human health outcomes.
Primates are not good drug testing proxies for humans. Billions of taxpayer dollars and hundreds of thousands of nonhuman primates’ lives are lost to unnecessary animal testing every year, yet we still have a 90-95% failure rate in human clinical trials, largely because animals do not accurately forecast the human reaction to drugs.
After 60 years of failure and billions in taxpayer funding, it’s time to redirect resources to the qualification and development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). We also must ensure that existing federal grants and funding for non-animal test research not only continue but grow. Even with increased grant funds, there will still be a net savings for the taxpayer from ending all the wasteful animal testing and research.
Now he and Dr. Makary need to replace the old machinery built on the backs of sentient animals. In addition to shutting down the dog labs, it’s time to get the primates out of labs. These close cousins of humans do not deserve this fate, especially when we know that testing and experimenting on them brings dubious benefits to medical science.
Commissioner Makary captured the importance of the transition to a new testing model so well:
“ For patients , it means a more efficient pipeline for novel treatments. It also means an added margin of safety, since human-based test systems may better predict real-world outcomes. For animal welfare , it represents a major step toward ending the use of laboratory animals in drug testing. Thousands of animals, including dogs and primates, could eventually be spared each year as these new methods take root.” (Emphasis in the original.)
I hope you will support our efforts to address one of the biggest problems in animal welfare. We’ve made incredible gains, but now is the time to press our case and not to relent for even a minute. [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
For all animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] WEBSITE [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
Animal Wellness Action | 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #136 | Washington, DC 20003
If you would like to manage your subscription or contribution history, please log into your self-service portal here. [[link removed]]
If you need to you can unsubscribe here: unsubscribe: [link removed]
You can also click here to donate [[link removed]] .
Dear friend,
Without question, we are at the dawn of a new era when it comes to reducing painful and ineffective animal tests and replacing them with 21st-century human-relevant testing methods.
Last month, I celebrated the extraordinary news that the FDA, under the leadership of Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., is seeking to phase out the use of animals in drug testing. Dr. Makary said that in a few short years, animal tests “will be the exception and not the norm.”
Remarkably, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya followed up with a similar announcement for the work of his agency, which is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. He’s already announced that he’s shut down the last of the beagle testing laboratories on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Makary’s announcement was a direct response to the political gains we made in our Modernize Testing campaign—specifically our successful effort in 2022 to pass the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA) 2.0 and our ongoing work to ensure implementation of that law by passing FDAMA 3.0.
The serial announcements from the two leaders of the two most important public health agencies in the world are an earthquake in the trillion-dollar global pharmaceutical sector and also in the university settings and private research labs where biomedical research is also conducted.
But the infrastructure of animal testing was built over the last century, and it will not be easily or quickly disassembled. We cannot expect this kind of grand change that Dr. Makary and Dr. Bhattacharya have promised to be self-executing.
We now must work with them and drive actions to apply their visions in very practical ways.
Time to Shut Down the National Primate Testing and Breeding Facilities
Today, I wrote to Dr. Bhattacharya and asked that he begin the process of winding down the work of 14 National Regional Primate Centers and related facilities that collectively house and use 50,000 primates.
This is a staggering number of highly intelligent, sociable animals. They suffer when they endure invasive experiments. When they live in small cages. When they are isolated from their kind. When they are consumed with a feeling of hopelessness. These Old World monkeys face psychological torments in such an alien, unforgiving setting.
The NIH and other public health agencies cannot logically stand by their clear-eyed vision for 21st-century drug screening and basic research in America and then allow the old, inefficient machinery of animal models to remain in place.
Dr. Makary has embraced better science and says that humane-relevant testing methods “should be replacing animal testing.” He’s keenly aware of the ethical problems with continued animal testing that doesn’t forecast human outcomes.
God did not make these animals on planet earth for us to do cruel things to them and subjugate them. It does not seem right. So, we are doing everything we can and we’re taking a lot of steps to reduce animal testing requirements and to stop unnecessary animal testing. (FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, April 17, 2025 [[link removed]] )
Saving Money, Saving Animals, Saving Human Patients in Crisis
Especially with Dr. Makary’s announcement, it seems wrong on fiscal and moral grounds for the federal government to continue to fund seven regional centers that send primates into invasive experiments and breed more primates for that purpose.
The National Primate Research Centers received approximately $88 million in 2023 for base grants, and there are millions spent on top of base funding for these. Over the next 10 years, this expense to taxpayers will be more than a billion dollars for strategies that the FDA commissioner and other science leaders note are counterproductive to human health outcomes.
Primates are not good drug testing proxies for humans. Billions of taxpayer dollars and hundreds of thousands of nonhuman primates’ lives are lost to unnecessary animal testing every year, yet we still have a 90-95% failure rate in human clinical trials, largely because animals do not accurately forecast the human reaction to drugs.
After 60 years of failure and billions in taxpayer funding, it’s time to redirect resources to the qualification and development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). We also must ensure that existing federal grants and funding for non-animal test research not only continue but grow. Even with increased grant funds, there will still be a net savings for the taxpayer from ending all the wasteful animal testing and research.
Now he and Dr. Makary need to replace the old machinery built on the backs of sentient animals. In addition to shutting down the dog labs, it’s time to get the primates out of labs. These close cousins of humans do not deserve this fate, especially when we know that testing and experimenting on them brings dubious benefits to medical science.
Commissioner Makary captured the importance of the transition to a new testing model so well:
“ For patients , it means a more efficient pipeline for novel treatments. It also means an added margin of safety, since human-based test systems may better predict real-world outcomes. For animal welfare , it represents a major step toward ending the use of laboratory animals in drug testing. Thousands of animals, including dogs and primates, could eventually be spared each year as these new methods take root.” (Emphasis in the original.)
I hope you will support our efforts to address one of the biggest problems in animal welfare. We’ve made incredible gains, but now is the time to press our case and not to relent for even a minute. [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
For all animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] WEBSITE [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
Animal Wellness Action | 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #136 | Washington, DC 20003
If you would like to manage your subscription or contribution history, please log into your self-service portal here. [[link removed]]
If you need to you can unsubscribe here: unsubscribe: [link removed]
You can also click here to donate [[link removed]] .
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