We have submitted our comments on the Commission’s draft EU Pharmaceutical Strategy calling for the EU to put innovation in humane and human-relevant safety at the heart of its new plans.

In July the Commission announced plans to launch a strategy ensuring Europe’s medicines meet patients’ needs and secure Europe’s pharmaceutical industry as an innovator and world leader, saying “the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic clearly demonstrates the need to modernise the way the EU ensures access to medicines for its population”.

Our paper recommends that innovation in safety and efficacy, and specifically the replacement of animal testing, be included in the EU’s strategy. We urge the Commission to develop a comprehensive plan, with agreed milestones, to deliver the EU’s existing commitment to replace animal tests and help bring about safer and more effective human medicines while ending the suffering of animals in Europe’s laboratories.  

Dr Katy Taylor, Director of Science at Cruelty Free Europe, says: “We want the Commission to develop a roadmap to end reliance on outdated and unreliable animal research. The roadmap should contain targets and timetables, like those seen in other EU sectors, such as climate emissions and pollution. This isn’t just an animal welfare issue. Humans are suffering due to our failure to understand complex human disease like Alzheimer’s that cannot be accurately predicted by animal research.”

Our suggestions were supported by a broad range of stakeholders at a pan-European conference that took place virtually in September. In the workshop ‘Building Back Better in a Post-COVID19 World’, decision-makers, academics, scientists and industry representatives from the EU and US agreed on the need for increased collaboration and investment in sustainable research and innovative human-relevant technologies.