UK government publishes aims to reduce animal testing and favour alternative methods

The ethics of animal testing is one of the most debated topics in the scientific world today. The argument of whether it is just to use these methods to test drugs and products is one that is considered before every risk assessment for a trial or test. As per PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) FAQ list, large corporations continue to test on animals as a form of legal protection. These companies often use the fact that the products have been tested (rather than the actual test results) to support the claim that they are conscionable.

When testing drugs and commercial products, there are two forms of testing they must undergo before entering a clinical trial involving humans, and before entering the shelves of your local shop. This applies whether this is makeup, soaps, drugs and more. 

There are two types of testing typically used: In Vitro testing involves experiments carried out outside of a living organism, such as in a test tube or petri dish. In Vivo tests involve a whole living organism such as an animal.

In the 2023 in the UK, according to the UK Government website, 2.68 million scientific procedures involving living animals were carried out, and the majority of these (60%) were in mice. Whilst this is a decrease from precious years, the government as of November 11^th, 2025, have made a press release, vowing to phase out animal tests in preference for alternative methods, with £75 million in funding to help carry this out. 

In this release, a greater reliance on AI is suggested as an alternative to living animals. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has been popularised in recent years to replace live animal testing through their use of large amounts of information to predict aspects of a drug from toxicity to the structure. An example of this would be the recently developed AlphaFold. This is a system developed by google deep mind which predicts the structure of a protein from just its amino acid sequence. From this, the designing and testing of drugs can become more efficient and is a suitable alternative to using living animals. 

This press release establishes the aims of ending the use of mice in the testing of botox strength by 2027 and to reduce pharmacokinetic studies, tracking how a drug moves through the body over time. The target for ending tests on dogs and non-human primates is by 2030. The response from organisations such as the RSPCA and other animal welfare scientists has been positive and we look forward to seeing these changes being put into place.