WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanda
Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Vanda) (Nasdaq: VNDA), a global
biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and
commercialization of innovative therapies to address high unmet
medical needs and improve the lives of patients, commends the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for yesterday's pledge "to
aggressively reduce animal testing" with the goal of "completely
eliminating them by 2035." The EPA also shared that it has provided
grants to identify and validate alternative testing
methods.
The EPA's announcement builds off of efforts it made in 2016 and
2018 to fulfill its commitment to the "use of cutting-edge science"
as opposed to antiquated animal testing. Furthermore, this action
comes on the heels of other government agencies taking steps to
eliminate unnecessary animal testing. Earlier this year, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) halted the use of cats to test
foods after more than 3,000 cats were killed in experiments, and
the Veteran's Administration (VA) stopped experiments involving
dogs.
"Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stands as a gross
outlier in the federal government as it relates to their outdated
requirement to unnecessarily test and kill dogs," said Mihael H. Polymeropoulos, M.D., Vanda's
President and CEO. "While other agencies in the FDA's regulatory
ecosystem have aggressively sought to leverage technological
advances to eliminate their reliance on animal testing, the FDA
lags behind them, the broader science community, and the American
public. By not changing its outmoded approach of forcing companies
to conduct unnecessary tests on dogs, the FDA not only misses the
opportunity to improve safety, but also pointlessly impedes the
delivery of innovative new drugs to patients who need them."
In February, Vanda filed a lawsuit, asking a court to prohibit
the FDA from requiring unnecessary animal studies on a promising
new drug to treat gastroparesis. The studies would result in the
unnecessary killing of dogs with no definable scientific
justification or improvement to human safety. That lawsuit is still
pending.
"Just before his departure as FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb said the agency should set a goal
of replacing experiments on animals with modern technology," said
Dr. Polymeropoulos. "I am calling on the FDA to follow the lead of
the EPA, the USDA and the VA and stop this scientifically flawed
practice, and set an aggressive deadline to switch to efficient and
effective, non-animal testing approaches that are rooted in the
best science."
About Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Vanda is a global
biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and
commercialization of innovative therapies to address high unmet
medical needs and improve the lives of patients. For more on Vanda,
please visit www.vandapharma.com.
Corporate Contact:
AJ Jones II
Chief Corporate Affairs and Communications Officer
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.
202-734-3400
pr@vandapharma.com
Elizabeth Van Every
Vice President
Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW)
(212) 798-9700
pr@vandapharma.com
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SOURCE Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.