The Truth About Animal Testing: Why It's Failing Us and Costing You Money | Dr. Neal Barnard
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is animal testing outdated?
In this episode of The Exam Room Podcast, Dr. Neal Barnard breaks down what's happening at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and why it could mark a turning point in medical research.
From shocking primate experiments to the rise of human-based science like organs-on-a-chip, we explore why more than 90% of drugs that succeed in animals fail in humans—and what that means for your health, your wallet, and the future of medicine.
🧠 You'll learn:
- Why animal testing often fails
- The ethics of primate research
- OHSU controversy explained
- Human-based alternatives eliminating animal research
- The future of medical research
❤️ Support The Exam Room Podcast & PCRM
👉 https://bit.ly/SupportExamRoom
🙏 Gregory J. Reiter Memorial Fund
👉 https://gregoryreiterfund.org
- About Us -
The Physicians Committee is dedicated to saving lives through plant-based diets and ethical and effective scientific research. We combine the clout and expertise of more than 17,000 physicians with the dedicated actions of more than 175,000 members across the United States and around the world.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. |
| 0:04.0 | This really does impact everybody. |
| 0:07.0 | It's not just the residents of the state of Oregon. |
| 0:09.0 | It's not just the primates that are being used. |
| 0:12.0 | Everybody who's watching, everybody who's listening is directly being impacted by this type of research. |
| 0:18.0 | Yes, and when you go down a blind alley in animals, |
| 0:21.1 | it makes everything so expensive. |
| 0:22.6 | There have been many, many, many drugs designed, say, for Alzheimer's disease. |
| 0:26.6 | And what we have found is that well over 90% of them completely crash and burn |
| 0:31.6 | when they look okay in a mouse. |
| 0:34.6 | And then you try them in human patients and it doesn't work |
| 0:36.6 | because it's a different biological system, and we see that over and over and over again. |
| 0:43.8 | Welcome to the exam room podcast, brought to you by the Physicians Committee. Hi, I'm Chuck Carroll, |
| 0:49.3 | raising health IQs coast to coast and around the world. Hi to the roomies listening in eugene oregon santa fe new |
| 0:56.8 | mexico and lisbon portugal wherever you are we appreciate you helping to make the world a healthier |
| 1:03.5 | place this is episode 29 of season nine number seven hundred twenty eight overall and look i'm not going to kid you. Today we are going to be doing |
| 1:12.7 | something very different. This is not going to be one of our typical nutrition-focused episodes. |
| 1:19.6 | And instead, we are going to be pulling back the curtain on another side of the physicians |
| 1:24.7 | committee, talking about work that's making the world a healthier |
| 1:27.7 | place in a very different way. |
| 1:31.4 | Today we are going to be talking about medical research, ethics, and a major shift that |
| 1:37.3 | is underway right now here in the United States, because out in Oregon, something massive is happening. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Physicians Committee, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Physicians Committee and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.