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Progress! NIH and FDA Support Human-Relevant Research
In April 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a major step toward ending animal experimentation by launching new efforts—such as increased funding, training, and support for modern, non-animal research methods—that reflect key recommendations from PETA’s Research Modernization NOW.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also made a similar commitment when it released its roadmap away from animal testing in April 2025. And in March 2026, NIH announced a $150 million investment in non-animal research methods, including the establishment of technology development centers, a data hub and coordinating center, and a validation and qualification network.
Original post
Experiments on animals are cruel and unethical, but did you know they’re also pointless af?
TThe most recent independent study shows that 90% of basic research, most of which involves animals, fails to lead to treatments for humans. Yet the biggest funder of research in the world, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), spends billions of dollars every year on experiments on animals. 🤦
We need a better way—and PETA scientists have come up with it. Research Modernization NOW outlines a path to ending funding for strategies that don’t work (like experiments on animals) and investing in research and testing methods that are relevant to humans.
The U.S. urgently needs this plan—help us put it into action!
Despite its progress, NIH has not yet addressed the following problems:
- Ninety-five percent of all new drugs that test safe and effective in experiments on animals fail in human clinical trials.
- Some new drugs tested on animals have an even higher failure rate. Here are a few examples.
- HIV vaccine—100%
- Strokes—100%
- Sepsis—100%
- Alzheimer’s disease—99.6%
- Cancer—96.6%
- Up to 89% of preclinical studies—many of which use animals— can’t be reproduced, which is a major red flag in scientific research.
A Gallup poll published in 2025 found that most Americans (53%) felt that medical testing on animals was morally unacceptable. Those who support it—the minority—assume that the benefits to humans outweigh the harm to animals. But now we know that experiments on animals don’t help humans. ❌
That’s where PETA’s Research Modernization NOW comes in. It maps out a strategy that includes the following:
- Eliminating the use of animals ASAP in areas where it has already been shown to be ineffective.
- Critically reviewing more research areas to see where animal use can be phased out.
- Redirecting funds from experiments on animals to non-animal research.
- Introducing an ethical harm-benefit analysis system into U.S. policies in charge of the use of animals in biomedical research.
- Working with organizations and agencies globally to harmonize and promote international acceptance of non-animal testing methods for regulatory testing requirements.
- Educating and training scientists in non-animal research approaches.
What You Can Do
We need all lawmakers to understand how much money is still being wasted on failed experiments on animals. Please sign our petition to your members of Congress, urging them to introduce legislation enacting Research Modernization NOW—you can help end cruel, useless experiments on animals and hype modern, non-animal research methods. 👏👏👏