Is it the beginning of the end for animal testing?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.2 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Patrick Vallance, the minister for science, research and innovation, recently unveiled a plan to cut animal testing through greater use of AI and other technologies, with the eventual aim of phasing it out altogether. To understand how this will affect research and what could be used in place of animal models, Madeleine Finlay hears from science editor Ian Sample, Prof Hazel Screen of Queen Mary University London and Prof Kevin Harrington from the Institute of Cancer Research. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:12.3	Every year in the UK, millions of procedures involving animals are done in the name of
0:18.6	science.
0:20.4	Many will be distressing, painful or fatal.
0:24.6	And while animal life supports important research and drug development,
0:29.6	the practice is contentious, highly emotive, and raises many ethical questions.
0:36.1	Stop in Thursday! Stop in Thursday. Stop in Thursday!
0:39.6	In animal testing!
0:41.4	In animal testing!
0:43.4	So earlier this month, when Patrick Valence,
0:46.2	Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation,
0:49.5	announced a roadmap towards phasing out the use of animal testing,
0:53.7	it felt like a big moment.
0:55.0	It's hugely exciting as an opportunity to explore how we can do this.
1:00.0	It includes 75 million pounds in government funding to continue developing technological alternatives to animal models.
1:09.0	We need to look at the potential with these technologies and how we can bring them forward.
1:18.7	So today I'm speaking to science editor Ian Sampel about what could replace animal testing,
1:25.2	some of the challenges that lie ahead, and whether it will ever be made
1:29.3	a thing of the past. From The Guardian, I'm Madeleine Finley, and this is Science Weekly.
1:41.1	Ian, you've been looking into this roadmap to end animal testing. So how big of a thing is animal testing in the UK?
1:51.8	What animals are we talking about? And what are they being used for?
1:55.6	Yeah. So for last year, the number of procedures that are performed on animals in Britain was 2.64 million.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Guardian, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Guardian and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.