Patients to benefit from faster access to medicines as UK moves away from animal testing in science

New projects to move UK science away from animal testing – vital to the safety and sustainability of our environment – will unlock new tests for products that can help products reach market more quickly and save lives. 

A dedicated national research hub and nine new high-tech projects will develop better ways to test medicines on human biology rather than animals. It means treatments for conditions like cancer and inflammatory bowel disease could be developed faster and more precisely - helping patients across the UK, while moving science away from traditional animal testing. 

The latest figures show there were 2.54 million animal testing procedures in Great Britain in 2025, down 3.8% on 2024. With a further update due to be released later this year, the UK is now moving to capitalise on that momentum. 

Announced by Science Minister Chris McDonald today (Wednesday 12th August), a new Pre-clinical Translational Models Hub, based in Cambridge and backed by £20 million in Government funding, will lead work to build and share models of human tissue - grown from NHS patients - to test new treatments.  

The new hub will accelerate the development of testing on ‘organoids’: tiny, simplified versions of a human gut, tumour or brain, using cells donated by patients. Because they retain crucial features of a patient’s own biology, they will help researchers learn how a real person may respond to a drug - providing additional insights that can complement information currently obtained from animals.  

Scientists in universities and drug companies will then be able to use these cutting-edge techniques in their own labs to work out which medicines are worth pursuing – slashing the time it takes to get potentially life-changing treatments to market.

Science Minister Chris McDonald said:

Today marks another significant step forward in the UK’s move away from animal testing in science and research.  

This is all about backing our world-leading researchers and innovators to improve lives, giving them the tools they need to deliver more effective treatments for horrendous diseases like cancer, while also preventing the need for animal testing wherever possible. 

It’s also a boost for our life sciences sector – with British firms using samples donated by real people and harnessing AI to predict how a medicine behaves – fuelling opportunities for new investment and new jobs, and ensuring Britain is better off.

Alongside the funding for the new Hub, Innovate UK is investing up to £2 million on nine cutting-edge projects aimed at identifying new methods of animal-free scientific testing. From beating heart cells in a dish to lab-grown human ear models and AI that predicts how medicines move through the body, many of the projects target the safety studies that still rely on dogs and monkeys. 

At CN Bio, the team is building tiny working versions of human organs that are small enough to fit on a microscope slide. These complex models allow researchers to better understand how a new drug moves through and interacts with the body – providing a new approach to pre-clinical research that previously relied solely on animal testing. 

Meanwhile, Vivosphere UK is building on their work growing tumour and liver models to develop human heart tissue in the lab, meaning they can spot dangerous side effects from treatments early. 

Promising early-stage projects like these are foundational to the UK’s life sciences sector, which generates around £147 billion in turnover and employs some 360,000 people. They have the potential to drive long-term transformative, life innovations for patients, and lead to growth and skilled jobs in every corner of the country.

ENDS

Supportive quotes 

Professor Matthias Zilbauer, University of Cambridge, said:

Over the past decade, we’ve seen the enormous potential of patient-derived organoids and other New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to transform the way we develop new medicines.  

Because these miniature human tissues retain many of the unique biological characteristics of the individual patient, they allow us to understand disease more accurately and test potential treatments before they ever reach the clinic. This has the potential to bring more effective, personalised treatments to patients while reducing the time and cost of developing new medicines and our reliance on animal models.” 

Cynthia Bullock, Life Sciences Programme Director at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) said:

Through the combined expertise of Innovate UK and MRC, UKRI is accelerating the development and adoption of next generation human biology-based approaches that can improve drug discovery and development, helping bring more effective treatments to patients faster while reducing reliance on animal models.” 

Building on the UK’s world-class strengths in research and innovation, these investments are advancing scientific excellence, creating opportunity for global leadership, supporting innovative businesses, and strengthening collaboration across academia, industry and the NHS to deliver health and economic impact.” 

Catherine Vickers, Head of Innovation at NC3Rs, said:

We are delighted to be partnering with Innovate UK to deliver key commitments within the UK Alternatives Strategy, supporting the next generation of cardiovascular and pharmacokinetic assays and approaches. By accelerating the development, commercialisation and uptake of innovative human biology-based technologies, these projects will strengthen safety assessment in medicines development and replace the use of animals.

Notes to editors 

• The Hub delivers part of Action 2a of the Life Sciences Sector Plan within the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, and supports both the Replacing Animals in Science Strategy and the AI for Science Strategy. 

• Scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2025 - GOV.UK 

• The Government will publish a delivery update of the Replacing Animals in Science Strategy later in 2026, alongside a set of key performance indicators. 

• With co-leads at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Hub will draw on a Cambridge research community of around 60 principal investigators. It will be based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – easily accessible from the new Cambridge South Station - minutes from NHS and industry partners, including AstraZeneca and GSK. 

• The Innovate UK funding forms phase 1 of a two-phase Contracts for Innovation competition, designed to deliver validated non-animal pharmacokinetic (PK) and cardiovascular safety assays. Phase 2 will support the most promising projects towards real-world application. 

Full list of awarded projects: 

• Biofoundry Energy Ltd — platform targeting a more than 50% reduction in dedicated cardiovascular safety studies using dogs and non-human primates. 

• BiomimX Srl — developing a miniature model of living human heart tissue to show how new medicines affect heartbeat and pumping, improving safety testing and reducing animal use. 

• CamGene Therapeutics Ltd — developing ear models designed to accelerate the advancement of therapies to improve hearing loss whilst reducing reliance on animal studies. 

• CN Bio Innovations Ltd — developing human-relevant models and simulations to predict how drugs behave in people, reducing animal testing, lowering costs, and improving confidence in safer, more effective medicines. 

• Ioteach Ltd — developing PKBridge, an AI platform that predicts how medicines move through the human body from laboratory data alone, replacing animal pharmacokinetic studies in drug development. 

• InoCardia Ltd — a feasibility study to test the viability of replacing dog and monkey cardiovascular drug safety studies with a regulator-approved non-animal alternative. 

• Nanograb Ltd — an AI platform predicting lipid nanoparticle pharmacokinetics and biodistribution from formulation data, enabling safer, faster development while reducing reliance on dedicated non-human primate studies. 

• University of Nottingham — developing a statistical tool to assess laboratory data and simulation-based predictions of pharmaceutical safety tests, building evidence for reduction and retirement of animal-based tests. 

• VivoSphere UK Ltd — a feasibility study using lab-grown human heart-like tissues to better predict drug side effects, ensuring reliable results, reducing animal testing, and improving patient safety. 

• The Replacing Animals in Science Strategy was published on 11 November 2025, supported by £75 million of funding. 

• In 2023/24 the UK’s life sciences sector was estimated to employ around 360,000 people and generate £147 billion in turnover. 

• In March 2026 the MHRA became the first UK regulator to commit to offering early review of non-animal data, allowing companies to confirm acceptability before clinical trials.