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mwc statement on NIH’s New Initiative on Non-Animal Methods

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Today’s announcement by the NIH marks a long-overdue shift toward modern science. For decades, animal testing has failed to protect human health, despite being propped up by institutional inertia and outdated regulation. The NIH finally acknowledging the limitations of animal testing — and investing in human-based, non-animal science — is both welcome and necessary.But let’s be clear: this should not be framed as a gentle evolution. It must be treated as a total dismantling of animal testing, not a side project. The data are clear — 95% of drugs that pass animal testing still fail in humans. Animal testing has not safeguarded patients. It has misled researchers, delayed discoveries, and cost both animal and human lives.

Non-animal methods are not experimental — they are validated, commercially available, and already being used in industry. Organoids, organ-on-chip systems, AI-driven toxicity prediction, and real-world data analysis all offer what animal testing never could: relevance to human biology.

We support NIH’s creation of the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) — but the urgency must match the rhetoric. The timeline must be aggressive. Funding must shift. Regulatory and grant review systems must be restructured to eliminate animal bias.

Above all, we must not continue to praise animal testing as “vital” while admitting it routinely fails. That contradiction only delays the change we urgently need.

The time is not for phasing out. The time is for ending animal testing now.

For public health. For human science. For the animals still suffering in laboratories.

— Savita Nutan
Founder, Medicine Without Cruelty

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