India, Feb. 10 -- The arguments to end animal testing include ethical concerns around animal cruelty, poor predictive value of safety and efficacy in humans, and a sense of its redundancy in the 21st century. This underscores the need to shift from traditional animal testing to modern non-animal methods (NAMs) grounded in human biology, including human organs-on-chips and organoids, AI-driven modelling, and other computational platforms. India must fast-track novel, human-based approaches to reduce drug discovery costs, time and failure rates, and needless animal suffering.

India has already banned animal testing for cosmetics and introduced the New Drugs and Clinical Trials (Amendment) Rules, 2023, to further incorporate NAMs. With the ...