We urge the Canadian Government to drop the requirement that new drugs be tested on animals before being released onto the marketplace.  The recently-passed FDA Modernization Act in the US acknowledges the unreliability of animal testing and has put an end to the requirement that animal testing be part of the drug approval process.  Modern, efficient, human-relevant methods can be used in its place. 

Canada must enact the same policy in order to ensure that safe and effective therapeutics are introduced to Canada, saving millions of animals and many human lives each year.

We call on the Canadian Minister of Health to direct the governing body Health Canada to require only sophisticated testing methods that have greater relevance to the human system.  Technical advances in personalized medicine and genetics have successfully demonstrated increased efficiency, reliability, cost effectiveness and environmental sustainability.  

Institutions such as the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods at the University of Windsor stand as examples of academic excellence and broader progress in Canadian biomedical research.  Yet such centres remain underfunded while Canada's animal use numbers remain high, at over 3,692,479 per year according to the latest reporting from the Canadian Council on Animal Care    https://ccac.ca/Documents/AUD/CCAC_Animal_Data_Report_2021.pdf

Animal research is every bit as hard on the animals as you might imagine.  Even before the animal reaches the laboratory, there is the stress of transportation, often following capture from the wild, and deprivation of its own natural instincts and social grouping.  The animal is destined to spend its life in a sterile laboratory setting, sometimes in isolation and restraint, only being removed from its cage to endure repeated blood draws, forced feedings, inhalation of chemicals, and often excruciating experimentation. After an experiment is over, the animal is usually either killed or 'recycled' into a further scientific project.

We urge the Canadian Government to enact policies that promote innovative health research and regulatory testing.  It is essential that we reallocate funding from repetitive animal testing-based science to the development, validation and implementation of scientifically and ethically superior methods.  As a signee of the International Cooperation on Alternative Test Methods (ICATM) in 2009, Health Canada must become proactive in this arena.  We ask you to uphold Canada's commitment to reduce and replace the use of animals in biomedical research, testing and training.