Last month the European Commission published its Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, but failed to include any commitment towards the replacement of animals in medicines testing.

We had submitted comments on the Commission’s proposals calling for the EU to put innovation in humane and human-relevant safety at the heart of its new strategy and phase out reliance on outdated animal tests.

While the strategy promotes innovation and the advancement of new technologies, including artificial intelligence and computer-based modeling to address unmet needs (such as therapies for neurodegenerative disorders and cancers) and unexpected challenges (such as COVID-19), it fails to acknowledge our continued reliance on animal tests as a roadblock to innovation and progress.

The benefit of modern human-relevant technologies in relation to animal welfare is mentioned only as an afterthought: “Technological advances can also support the 3Rs principles (replace, reduce, refine) for the ethical use of animals in medicine testing”. This is, in our opinion, a weak statement that continues to normalise use of animals as a solution to human problems.

The EU’s strategy is also out of line with the European Medicines Agency’s own Regulatory Science Strategy to 2025 published earlier this year which includes several key actions to promote the use and development of non-animal methods with a clear focus to reduce and replace animal use.

Dr Katy Taylor, our Director of Science and Regulatory Affairs, said: “The pharmaceutical sector will continue to struggle to respond to long term health issues such as our aging population and new pandemics unless it moves away from unreliable animal tests and invests in human-relevant ways to predict the safety and effectives or our new medicines.

“We feel this is a missed opportunity for the EU to acknowledge the failures of animal experiments and set itself up as the world-leading powerhouse for animal-free research and innovation. “