• The FDA announced it will phase out requirements for animal testing of monoclonal antibodies and other drugs, citing the availability of "more effective, human-relevant methods" for safety evaluation.
• The initiative aims to improve drug safety, accelerate evaluation processes, reduce R&D costs, and ultimately lower drug prices by implementing AI-based computational models, humanoid models, and real-world human data.
• This regulatory shift, enabled by the bipartisan FDA Modernization Act 2.0 of 2022, represents what FDA Commissioner Marty Makary calls "a paradigm shift in drug evaluation" that could expedite development of new treatments.