Washington Update
NIH Accepts Advisory Committee Recommendations on Novel Alternative Methods
By: Yvette SegerWednesday, February 7, 2024
On February 1, National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a statement accepting the final report and recommendations from the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) Working Group on Catalyzing the Development and Use of Novel Alternative Methods (NAMs) to Advance Biomedical Research. In the statement, NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, MD, noted the agency’s commitment to invest in the development of robust tools to study human biology and disease. The recent approval of the Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) concept clearance by NIH’s Council of Councils reiterates this commitment.
As previously reported, several of the recommendations and associated sub-recommendations echoed FASEB’s comments in response to a Request for Information issued by the ACD Working Group and during a public workshop as part of its deliberations. Specifically, the newly approved Complement-ARIE program addresses FASEB’s comments to provide funding mechanisms to incentivize a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to development and advancement of NAMs.