Advancing alternative industrialised models for drug development

A changing landscape in drug development

Preclinical drug development is evolving. For decades, animal models have been the default for early safety and pharmacology testing, yet the evidence is clear: they are expensive, ethically challenging and often fail to predict human outcomes. Today, only one in 10 drugs entering clinical trials succeed, despite strong preclinical data from animal models.

Recent government announcements are reshaping the UK landscape, laying a stronger foundation for the next generation of preclinical methodology.

Human relevant, scalable, non animal technologies could dramatically improve early decision making, reduce late stage failures, and accelerate the delivery of safer, more ethical and more effective medicines.

Why alternatives, and why now?

We are reaching a pivotal moment. Advances in AI, genomics, organoid technology (miniature, 3D organs grown in the laboratory), and computational modelling are converging with supportive regulatory signals and international momentum. These forces are reshaping expectations around what early‑stage drug development should look like.

The UK government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and the Life Sciences Sector Plan highlight life sciences as a driver of national prosperity. Strengthening our preclinical infrastructure is central to that ambition, ensuring that the UK remains a world‑class environment for developing the medicines of tomorrow.

The Life Sciences Sector Plan and the Replacing animals in science strategy provide a clear roadmap, with funding of £75 million for infrastructure projects and co-ordinated regulatory engagement to support the creation, validation and adoption of these technologies.

Alongside the outlined infrastructure projects the government’s strategy identifies priority areas for development of non-animal based alternatives, including pharmacokinetic (PK) testing and cardiovascular toxicology, both of which currently rely on use of dogs and non-human primates.

How Innovate UK is moving the sector forward

To translate this national ambition into real world capability, Innovate UK, working in partnership with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), is launching a two phase competition designed to deliver the next-generation of validated non-animal PK/pharmacodynamics and cardiovascular safety assays, positioning UK innovators to compete in a rapidly expanding global market.

This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition*. Phase 1, opening 2 March, will focus on developing technical and commercial feasibility: generating early evidence, refining methods and showing a credible pathway toward broader adoption. Phase 2 will support the most promising projects to move toward development and real world applicability.

The goal is simple: to empower our most innovative organisations, particularly SMEs, to industrialise cutting edge science into the tools that modern drug development urgently needs, enabled by regulatory reform.

From AI‑driven PK prediction to beating heart cells in a dish, organ on a chip technologies and platforms that integrate a range of these approaches, this competition seeks technologies that can offer the accuracy, reproducibility and scalability required to transform the sector and fuel sustainable economic growth.

Key dates

• 2 March 2026: Competition opens
• 4 March 2026: Briefing event
• 10 March 2026: NC3Rs/Innovate UK workshop – Delivering the government’s alternative methods strategy – Pharmacokinetic and cardiovascular safety studies

Registration for the workshop will close Friday 27th February.

*The decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1 and assessment of a separate application into a subsequent phase 2 competition. Only the successful applicants from phase 1 will be invited to apply to take part in phase 2.