PETA has publicly commended the Trump administration for its recent initiatives to phase out animal testing at both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The FDA announced plans to reduce or replace traditional animal testing requirements for monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs with New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which include AI-based models and lab-grown human organoids. Similarly, the EPA reinstated a policy from Trump’s first term aiming to eliminate mammal testing by 2035, a plan that had been previously delayed.
The Trump Administration stated, “The FDA’s animal testing requirement will be reduced, refined, or potentially replaced using a range of approaches, including AI-based computational models of toxicity and cell lines and organoid toxicity testing in a laboratory setting (so-called New Approach Methodologies or NAMs data).”
“By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices…It is a win-win for public health and ethics,” FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary explained.
PETA praised these moves as significant steps toward ending animal testing in federal research. In a statement, the organization stated, “PETA applauds the FDA’s decision to stop harming animals and adopt human-relevant testing strategies for evaluating antibody therapies.”
The organization also directed its gratitude to the current administration, saying, “PETA thanks the Trump administration for modernizing the FDA and helping spare tens of thousands of animals each year from being killed in expensive and archaic laboratory tests.”
“It’s a significant step towards meeting the agency’s commitment to replace the use of animals – which PETA has worked hard to promote. All animal use, including failed vaccine and other testing on monkeys at the federally-funded primate centers, must end, and we are calling on the FDA to further embrace 21st-century science.”
Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo stated that adopting human-relevant testing strategies aligns with PETA’s long-standing advocacy to replace animal use in research. The organization also expressed gratitude on social media, thanking the Trump administration for modernizing the FDA and helping to spare tens of thousands of animals from being used in laboratory tests.
