Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL) issued a statement praising the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent decision to stop testing drugs on animals, saying he was "proud" of them for making this decision.
The FDA announced the plan earlier in April, saying they will move into more advanced methods of testing monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs. Techniques will include advanced computer simulations and artificial intelligence (AI), lab-grown human organoids, and "organs on a chip," which are microfluidic culture devices that recapitulate living human organs' complex structures and functions.
These methods will improve the speed and efficiency of drug testing. Due to their differing physiologies, they can more accurately depict a drug's effect on human consumers than on animals such as primates (even if chimpanzees are our closest relatives) and dogs.
After all, Rep. Buchanan's FDA Modernization Act, signed into law in 2022, phases out animal testing precisely because, as his press release at the time noted, "the failure rate in translating animal studies to human clinical trials is nearly 96 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health."
With the FDA now moving away from animal testing for good, Rep. Buchanan said, "I am proud to see the FDA taking action to phase out animal testing following the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 being signed into law and the subsequent introduction of the FDA Modernization Act 3.0, bills I was honored to help lead."
"For years, I have advocated for the adoption of modern, humane alternatives that improve drug safety and protect animals from unnecessary suffering," The Florida Congressman added. "This announcement marks a victory for innovation and will lead to faster, more accurate, and cost-effective drug development that will deliver safe and effective treatments to patients."
As a member of the Animal Protection Caucus, Buchanan has consistently stood up for America's nonhuman inhabitants, most recently teaming up with Representative Darren Soto (D-FL) to improve conservation efforts of Florida's manatees.
