The Brief
- Stem Pharm, a Madison biotech startup, is using lab-created 3D “organoids” to develop a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
- In April, the FDA and NIH announced plans to incentivize so-called “new approach methodologies” like organoids to reduce or eliminate the use of animals in drug research.
- The announcements come as Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin beagle-breeder, faces mounting criminal and disciplinary investigations.
MILWAUKEE – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has “groundbreaking” plans to phase out animal testing for certain new drugs in the next three to five years. The agency said it plans to incentivize the very kind of research already underway at a biotech startup in Madison that is developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s.
Drug research without animals
The backstory:
Thirty miles west of Madison, Ridglan Farms sells beagle puppies for use in laboratory experiments. It is also the subject of an ongoing animal cruelty investigation, and several staff members face disciplinary investigations as activists call for the state to confiscate thousands of would-be lab dogs.
Meanwhile, researchers at Madison-based Stem Pharm are working on a new approach to drug development that could reduce or replace the need for animal experiments altogether.…