February 4, 2026

Excerpt:

The National Institutes of Health wants to transition at least one of seven national primate research centers into an animal sanctuary, aiming to move away from animal testing in favor of alternative methods.

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But some researchers worry that moving away from animal testing too quickly could mean stalled progress on treatments that could cure disease and save lives.

Naomi Charalambakis, who directs science policy and communications at Americans for Medical Progress, an advocacy group that supports responsible animal testing in biomedical research, cautioned that certain fields of study do not yet have viable alternatives to animal testing.

“What we don’t want to do is prematurely eliminate a model that we really need, and then we run into issues in clinical trials that inevitably hurt patients or delay progress in public health,” Charalambakis said.

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Sophie Gardner, Politico