A PARADIGM SHIFT

FOCUS ANIMAL TESTING

- Peter Singer & Sankalpa Ghose

Even in an era of intense political polarization, there are still moments when a bipartisan consensus can emerge around important ethical issues.

One such moment is happening now. Last April the United States Food and Drug Administration released its “Roadmap to Reducing Animal Testing in Preclinical Safety Studies.” The FDA said that it was taking “a groundbreaking step” that would advance public health and limit wasteful expenditure by replacing animal testing with “more effective, human-relevant methods.”

Such a step would, of course, reduce the suffering of millions of nonhuman animals used for tests. Echoing what opponents of the use of animals in drug testing have long been saying, the FDA referred to a growing scientific recognition that animals do not provide adequate models of human health and disease. The Roadmap also noted that more than 90% of drugs that appear safe and effective in animals do not receive FDA approval for use in humans because they are not safe and effective in humans.