NIH stops requests for new studies solely relying on animal testing

The National Institutes of Health announced on Monday that the biomedical agency will no longer put out new funding opportunities solely relying upon animal testing and will require that applicants consider using some form of computational modeling or artificial intelligence to determine how a particular product or treatment will affect human health.

The new policy marks an incremental shift in the biomedical agency’s overall trajectory toward embracing the data capacity of artificial intelligence, but animal rights groups say the rejection of animal testing is not happening fast enough.