 U.S. Senator Rand Paul is taking aim at animal testing by throwing his support behind a new bill. Joined by fellow Senators Mike Brown of Indiana and John Kennedy of Louisiana, Paul announced he will sponsor the FDA Modernization Act in the Senate. The bill would end a requirement dating back to 1938 that new drugs first be tested on animals for toxicity. I was unaware that the FDA actually required that animal testing being done. I knew animal testing was done, but I was unaware until the last couple of months that it was actually required by the FDA to do animal testing before you got to human testing. And look, I've been involved in medicine. I've been involved in science. I've been around the testing world. I think sensibilities change over time. When I was in medical school, they were just, I think at the point where they were no longer doing chimpanzee research. We decided they were too close to humans for comfort and people's sensibilities changed and we don't do it. And there were some horrific things done. I think a lot of people feel their dogs and cats are close to humans as well. And so anything we can do to make it easier to find alternatives. Our bill doesn't forbid it, but our bill goes a long way towards allowing it to change. There are scientists who now believe that they can find other ways. There are scientists who believe, frankly, that the animal testing isn't very accurate in the way it test is for safety or efficacy. I think there's a reasonable chance that we might find something that we could actually pass through a bipartisan, maybe even a unanimous bill, but we're going to try. A similar bill was introduced in the House back in April, but has not gone anywhere since being sent to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on April 16th.