US agency seeks to phase out animal testing

Written by Rachel Nuwer for Nature. Published on November 4th, 2022. Dr. Paul Locke interviewed for this article.

Although there is no set timeline, FDA officials say the programme is a priority. It would be funded from US$5 million it has requested as part of its 2023 budget to develop a ‘comprehensive strategy’ on alternative testing methods. According to Paul Locke, an environmental-health scientist and lawyer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who specializes in alternatives to animal testing, the FDA is taking a necessary step towards ensuring that the US government stays up to speed with the latest science. “I’m really excited about what the FDA’s doing here,” he says. “They’ve put a stake in the ground and said, ‘Hey, we want to be there using these tools, they’re consistent with our mission and they’re consistent with what twenty-first-century science looks like.’”

Read the rest of the article where Dr. Locke is quoted in Nature.