Dr Hadwen Trust: Budget ignores non-animal research

Thursday, 22 March 2007 12:00 AM

The Dr Hadwen Trust is disappointed that this budget fails to recognise the urgent need to prioritise funding to drive forward cutting-edge, non-animal research. The government claims to be committed to the 3Rs of replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experiments.

Replacing animal experiments completely and swiftly is the ultimate ethical and scientifically beneficial goal and yet this budget demonstrates that the government appears to have no pro-active or meaningful policy for achieving this.

Commitment to replacing animal research can only be judged by actions and not by words. Chancellor Gordon Brown has announced that the UK's public spending on science will increase to £6.3bn by 2010, a rise from present spending at £5bn. Mr Brown said that this substantial level of investment will "provide long-term certainty for the research community" and added that the budget contained several initiatives to provide incentives for innovation investment. However, the budget delivers no such certainty or incentives for those in the research community developing non-animal technologies and techniques.

In Britain, nearly three million animals are used in experiments each year. To our shame, we remain the highest user of laboratory animals in Europe. Public opinion polls consistently demonstrate extremely high support for non-animal research, and national and EU authorities are increasingly united and outspoken about the ethical as well as undeniable scientific and human health advantages of more modern, relevant and reliable non-animal replacement techniques. If Britain is ever to succeed in harnessing those advantages to achieve the goal of replacing all animal experiments, that must be driven by targeted and explicit government policy and underpinned by substantially increased investment.

In 2002, the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures declared that ". all sides of the debate on animal procedures say that animals are highly imperfect models. It will be for the benefit of science, and ultimately of human health, if better methods of research and testing could be developed." In response the following year, the Secretary of State for the Home Department agreed and added, that "replacement methods, such as in vitro screening and computer modelling, can be more reliable, quicker, more efficient and cost effective than animal models".

The European Commission also recognises the urgent need to back replacement technologies, acknowledging that the development of new methods will inevitably increase the competitiveness of European industry. Non-animal strategies can and do provide important commercial success for European business and Britain could be the driving force behind this new movement if its political and investment policy was in order.

The budget claims that "the government is committed to providing the right environment for innovation and creativity to flourish." There can hardly be a more innovative or creative area of modern bioscience than non-animal research development and yet they are woefully overlooked by this budget. By 2007-08, total UK science spending will be £5.4 billion. Current government spending on replacement research (via the National Centre for the 3 Rs) is totally inadequate. Since it began operating in 2004 the government's National Centre for the 3Rs has awarded some £3 million pounds in grants for research, £1.8 million of which was for research to replace animal experiments. In the same period, 2004-2006, the Dr Hadwen Trust alone awarded almost £1.5 million pounds for replacement research.

For the sake of animal welfare, human health, the economy and improving the quality of science, this government truly has got to start literally putting its money where its mouth is.

www.drhadwentrust.org

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