Sexually mature nonhuman primate re-use in developmental and reproductive studies

BDRP 2025 -- Sexually mature nonhuman primates (NHPs) are often used as the only pharmacologically relevant species or due to the similarity in immune responses to a drug compared to humans in toxicology studies. NHPs are used to assess the effects of a test article in an enhanced pre- and post-natal development (ePPND) study, evaluating pregnancy, parturition, embryo-fetal development and survival and growth, and postnatal development of offspring. Given this increased need for sexually mature NHPs in developmental and reproductive research, it is critical to examine the further re-use of sexually mature NHPs. Some hesitance exists to reuse control animals previously deployed on a study across the pharmaceutical industry. This hesitance can lead to missed opportunities for animal re-use. For example, sexually mature NHPs from the control group of a pre- and post-natal developmental study are suitable for re-use. The re-use of control animals from ePPND studies is a refinement of the existing process for animal selection for study and further reduces the number of animals necessary in alignment with the 3Rs for ethical animal use.