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Animal Experiments: Heart Diseases

Asked by Ben Obese-JectyConservativeDepartment for Science, Innovation and TechnologyTabled Answered 27 April 2026UIN 128386

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, what progress she has made in reducing animal use in cardiovascular safety studies.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan

Basket 2 of the strategy outlines long‑term ambitions which must be science‑led, partnership‑based, and delivered over time.

Innovate UK in partnership with NC3Rs launched a funding call supporting the development and commercialisation of alternative methods for assessing the preclinical cardiovascular safety of new medicines: Contracts for Innovation: industrial human relevant drug models – UKRI. This follows work led by IUK and NC3Rs to build a community around this opportunity. https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/contracts-for-innovation-industrial-human-relevant-drug-models/

The strategy aims to use validated alternative methods to reduce the use of non‑human primates and dogs in dedicated cardiovascular safety studies by at least 50% by 2030.

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