A beagle puppy’s mouth is taped shut to prevent her from spitting out an experimental drug. Chemicals are forced through a tube into her stomach or injected into her eyes. Some are only one week old. 20,000 dogs killed each year. No pain relief. No anesthesia.
Now here’s the real scandal: drug companies don’t want to do any of this. They prefer newer, cheaper, faster, and more accurate technology— but the Food and Drug Administration remains entrenched in regulations from nearly a century ago, and its heavy-handed bureaucrats punish industry for challenging its dog testing red tape.
White Coat Waste Project’s landmark new report, BROKEN BUREAUCRACY, is a first-of-its-kind analysis of how thousands of puppies are abused in wasteful, misleading, and expensive drug tests just to satisfy archaic FDA red tape… and how puppies, patients, in addition to drug makers’ own profits, are the victims.
As first reported by The Daily Caller, in this investigation, we analyzed some 200 new drug applications (NDAs) submitted to the FDA by pharmaceutical companies over the last 20 years.
These NDAs are important because they describe, in the industry’s own words, what FDA forces them to do for regulatory approval — whether they like it or not.
Here’s a small sample of what our investigation reveals:
- Puppies had their mouths taped shut to prevent them from spitting out the experimental chemicals.
- Some were forced to inhale experimental drugs by having masks strapped to their faces, or made to ingest drugs by having tubes forced down their throats.
- Dogs were reported to “vocalize” and “struggle” during dosings, indicating pain.
- Many dogs suffered adverse effects like foaming at the mouth, becoming comatose or paralyzed, blindness, convulsions, “beagle pain syndrome,” and more.
- In many of the FDA-mandated studies, dogs were reported as having been “found dead” or dying from “human error,” including trauma during force-feeding, or incorrect dosing.
These dog tests are stunningly expensive (up to $900,000 each!) and unreliable (even according to government scientists themselves), while more efficient, effective, and dog-friendly test methods exist—all this is detailed in our report, too.
And indeed, the proof’s in the pudding: Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines were rapidly developed and fast-tracked through the FDA’s normal animal-testing mandate, to great success!
Polling shows a supermajority of taxpayers from both parties say the FDA should cut red tape. WCW has rallied Congress to push regulatory relief across party lines.
No voice. No choice. FDA red tape ties the industry’s hands and tapes puppies’ mouths shut.
To get treatments to market faster, cheaper, with fewer dead dogs, and without delay, we don’t just need to cut FDA red tape … we need to SLASH it!
WCW’s Broken Bureaucracy report recommends the following policies:
- Audit the FDA: The Government Accountability Office should audit the FDA to determine the extent to which the FDA has—or has not—allowed companies to use alternatives to dog tests.
- Enact the AARF ACT: Congress should pass the bipartisan Alternatives to Animals for Regulatory Fairness Act (H.R. 1905)—known as the AARF Act—to codify drug companies’ freedom to avoid the FDA’s dog testing mandate and utilize more productive testing methods.
- Modernize regulations and industry guidances: The FDA should revise its current regulations and issue detailed guidance on how drug makers can avoid testing on dogs under the current legal framework.
- Enhance accountability: The FDA’s Alternative Methods Working Group should establish performance indicators and timelines for its efforts to expand regulatory acceptance of non-dog testing methods.
The system is sick. We have the cure. Please read BROKEN BUREAUCRACY.