The last few weeks have seen mass campaigns by people seeking recall of a draft notification on animal trials issued by the Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA).
The plea for recall is because the draft does not seem to keep the welfare of animals at the core of this scientific exercise.
Animal trials involve testing medicines for toxicity and safety, on monkeys, beagle dogs, guinea pigs and rats.
The first exposure of a prospective medicine to humans comes only after animal trials — when the medicine is given during Phase I of clinical trials, to human volunteers.
With animals, there is no volunteering or consent — they did not sign up for trials.
But if you don’t want to go down that humane, ethical road there are scientific reasons , outlined by international drug regulators, explaining why “animal models fail humans”.
Oddly, the latest draft seems to take two steps back, when international drug regulators are moving full steam ahead to replace animal trials with non-animal and alternative methods — to modernise drug development.
Dilutes norms Animal welfare voices say, the CCSEA draft dilutes the existing regulatory framework, and relies on ethical committees at institutions to judge trials done at the same institution.
It also leaves the door open on trails involving endangered species, and community/feral dogs and cats.
Contrast this with the world view.
The United States Food and Drug Authority (USFDA), for example, in its status report on reducing animal testing in preclinical safety studies (April 2026), said: “One year later, that vision has translated into measurable progress that is already saving lives — both human and animal.” The transformation, “rests on concrete achievements,” it says, pointing to “new policies that eliminated unnecessary six-month primate studies for monoclonal....
