Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

• Animals have been used for medical research for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Greece where the first dissections were performed.
• These days, one of the main uses of animals is to ensure the safety of medical products before they’re trialled in humans.
• But in addition to the important ethical reasons for minimising animal use, the reality is sometimes animals just aren’t that good at predicting human responses.

What are non-animal models?

• In doing so, this can more accurately predict if a medical product is likely to fail, allowing reinvestment in products that are more likely to succeed.
• These can be used across the medical product development process to complement – and in time potentially replace – other model types.
• They can be used in drug studies to model a drug’s behaviour within the body, from cellular interactions to processes that involve multiple organs.

What can we use non-animal models for?

In theory, we can use non-animal models for everything we use animal models for – and more. Simple non-animal models (human cells cultured over a flat surface) are already used to help identify drug targets due to their ability to test a large number of compounds and experimental conditions. In the future, non-animal models will reduce – and eventually replace – animal use across a range of applications:
Outside of medical products designed for humans, non-animal models can also support innovation in veterinary and agricultural medicines, cosmetic testing and eco-toxicology.

An export opportunity for Australia

• Non-animal models present an economic opportunity for Australia, where the models, their components, and surrounding services could be exported to the world.
• Our novel economic analysis sized the potential Australian market for two non-animal models: organoids and organs-on-chips.
• Another example is from Schott Minifab, an international biotech and medical device company with Australian roots, which has successfully established scaled production of non-animal model components in Australia for domestic and export markets.

Making it a reality

• Non-animal models have already begun to complement and replace animal use in some areas, such as identifying drug targets.
• However, accelerating their development and adoption across a wider range of applications will require further technical advances to lower cost and validate their performance as superior models.


Governments, industry and research must collaborate to deliver against these actions. Success will only come from collective efforts.

Read more:
Is it time for Australia to be more open about research involving animals?