Washington, D.C. — July 24  — Americans for Medical Progress (AMP) submitted written comments ahead of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) Public Forum, taking place July 29-30, 2026.

AMP’s comments focus on NIH’s newly established Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) and how ICCVAM can help facilitate the office’s mission and growing role within the agency. The comments underscore that scientific progress will require continued support for both animal studies and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), with federal policies, funding decisions, and research priorities reflecting an integrative approach rather than creating an unnecessary divide between scientific methods.

AMP offered three recommendations:

1. Measure progress by scientific impact. Success should be evaluated through rigor, reproducibility, predictive value, regulatory utility, mechanistic insight, and patient benefit rather than changes in funding totals or animal-use numbers.
2. Protect and strategically invest in essential research infrastructure. Investments in NAMs and its infrastructure should complement, rather than undermine, the facilities, breeding resources, veterinary expertise, skilled personnel, samples, and reference data needed across the research ecosystem.
3. Maintain method-neutral grant review, training, and agency communication. Research approaches should be evaluated according to their suitability for the scientific question and the quality of the evidence they can produce, without preferences or disincentives based solely on the category of method proposed.

Read AMP’s full comments here.