The Humane Research and Testing Act will mandate that NIH follow the law. Fundamental to reducing animal experimentation is the ability to track the number of animals used, yet precise numbers of animals used in U.S. research are unknown. This lack of transparency in what animals are used, how many are used, and how they are used makes it impossible for the public to know whether NIH is making any true effort in replacing animal tests.
Visit their websites: Aysha Akhtar/Center for Contemporary Sciences and Barbara Stagno/CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation
Image by Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals
Recently, Representatives Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Vern Buchanan
(R- FL), following efforts by Citizens for Alternatives to Animal
Research & Experimentation (CAARE), introduced a bill that would
provide a needed boost to medical research.
If passed, the Humane Research and Testing Act of 2021 (H.R. 1744)
will establish the National Center for Alternatives to Animals in
Research (Center) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The
bill follows nearly 30 years after Congress passed the NIH
Revitalization Act to modernize many of the outdated policies and
regulations carried out under the world’s largest biomedical
institution. The 1993 law included a substantial section [Section
205] to address the growing need and opportunities to replace
animals in research. In robust language, the Act called upon NIH “to
conduct or support research into methods of biomedical research and
experimentation that do not require the use of animals.” It also
included language “for training scientists in the use of such
[non-animal] methods that have been found to be valid and reliable,”
as well as “encouraging the acceptance by the scientific community
of such methods that have been found to be valid and reliable.”
Unfortunately, even though this legislation passed nearly 30 years
ago, NIH has made little effort in replacing animal testing, even
with a revolution that has unfolded in biotechnology allowing for
superior human-specific research without animals. According to a
2012 National Research Council report, almost half of NIH’s funding
is for testing that involves animal use, and this amount has
remained stable over the years.
The Humane Research and Testing Act will mandate that NIH follow the
law. Fundamental to reducing animal experimentation is the ability
to track the number of animals used, yet precise numbers of animals
used in U.S. research are unknown. This lack of transparency in what
animals are used, how many are used, and how they are used makes it
impossible for the public to know whether NIH is making any true
effort in replacing animal tests. That is why, in addition to the
creation of the Center, the Humane Research and Testing Act (HRTA)
will require NIH to track and disclose the numbers of all animals
used and document its progress at reducing them through mandatory
bi-annual reports.
Importantly, the establishment of a Center will be an important step
in ensuring scientific progress for human health. It is becoming
increasingly recognized by scientific bodies that there is an urgent
need for a sea change away from animal testing. Whatever role
animals may have played in medical research in the past, today’s
research deals with the subtle nuances of molecular biology and
genetics. Interspecies differences in physiology, pharmacokinetics,
and genetics significantly limit the reliability of animal testing.
And the proof is in the pudding. More than 90 percent of drugs and
vaccines fail during human clinical trials, after passing animal
tests. People enrolled in clinical trials put their lives at risk
based on misleading safety tests on animals. Equally troubling is
the very likely fact that many drugs that were abandoned based on
animal tests may have worked wonderfully in humans. Most diseases
have little or no treatment available. But how many missed
opportunities were there because of the unreliability of animal
testing?
New testing methods offer a way out of the quagmire that animal
testing has caused. Human organs grown in the lab, human chip
models, cognitive computing technologies, 3D printing of human
living tissues, and the Human Toxome Project offer great promise in
helping scientists understand the diseases that afflict us and find
treatments. Much of their promise lies in the fact that these
testing methods are based on human biology.
But more change is needed and needed faster. As long as NIH
prioritizes funding of animal research, the development of
innovative testing methods will be impeded. The Center will be
tasked with developing, funding, and incentivizing innovative,
human-based methods. The Center will also educate and train
scientists to utilize these methods.
The HRTA was introduced one month before Congressman Hastings died
from pancreatic cancer. His words drove home his strong belief that
the HRTA will be transformative: “This legislation will not just
reduce animal testing and research,” said Hastings, “but will
ultimately improve medical treatments for humans as they are
developed from beginning to end primarily with test subjects that
replicate human biology and physiology.”
Will Congress honor Hastings’s legacy? Lives remain in the balance
as long as the biomedical system is based on ineffective animal
testing. A new center within NIH will help ensure that our tax
dollars are used to fund the best and kindest medical science
possible and pave the way for innovation.