Roche is investing in AI, but animal testing still ongoing
Roche will collaborate with Nvidia on an AI facility and use chips for various stages of drug development.
Published on May 19, 2026
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Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is taking a major step toward digitizing its research and development activities. Together with Nvidia, it is building two AI factories, one in the United States and one in Europe. With this infrastructure, the company aims to accelerate processes such as modeling, data analysis, and clinical research. Previously, digitization had already led to a reduction of approximately 40% in the number of animal tests.
According to Roche, animal testing cannot yet be completely avoided and remains necessary within existing scientific and legal frameworks. Roche uses animal testing for research into cancer, neurological, and physical disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Roche intends to replace diabetes research with the use of chips. Cognitive disorders cannot be tested in animals because their abilities cannot be clearly measured. The company states that it will further reduce animal testing wherever possible.
Alternatives: cells and chips
Roche is focusing, among other things, on organ-on-a-chip systems and other cell-based models that mimic human organs. “The focus on AI and chips may potentially reduce the number of animal tests,” said a Roche employee who wishes to remain anonymous.
According to PETA, these animal-testing-free techniques represent clear progress, but are not yet fully animal-free as long as animal-derived materials such as fetal bovine serum (FBS) and Matrigel are used. FBS contains vital growth factors, hormones, vitamins, and adhesion factors necessary for the proliferation of cultured cells. FBS is widely used in vaccine production. Matrigel, for example, is also harvested by growing tumors on mice. Matrigel is an animal protein matrix used in the lab to grow cells and model tissue-like structures such as organoids. “This means that animals are still suffering and dying for research, even if they are no longer directly used in experiments,” says Hogervorst. Only when all animal components have been replaced by human or synthetic alternatives is a method, in her view, truly ethically acceptable. Roche states that animals are used for oncology drugs because they can have toxic side effects. For other trials, people are paid to test drugs.
PETA: technology as a turning point
Animal rights organization PETA views this development as a significant step toward reducing animal testing. According to the organization, AI and advanced biological models can revolutionize research and drug development.
“The ultimate goal must be the complete abolition of animal testing,” said Dr. Janneke Hogervorst, science advisor at PETA UK.
Trust in animal testing versus new technology
According to Hogervorst, it is problematic that animal testing is still often trusted more than new technologies such as chip systems. The predictive value of animal testing is low: approximately 90%–95% of drugs fail in clinical trials in humans. The poor transferability of results from animals to humans has been identified as a major problem, says Hogervorst.
“This suggests that trust is primarily based on tradition and regulations,” says Hogervorst. That is why, in her view, animal-free methods such as organ-on-a-chip and AI—which are directly based on human biology—should take center stage.
Limitations and necessity of animal testing according to Roche
According to the anonymous employee, Roche is pursuing multiple avenues: digitization, improving animal welfare, and, where possible, replacing animal testing with alternatives.
Nevertheless, animal testing remains necessary in certain areas. “We don’t yet know exactly how the human brain works. It’s therefore impossible to design an AI or chip that understands how such diseases progress with new medications. For that reason, animal testing unfortunately remains crucial.”
Regulations and ethics
Roche operates within strict European and American regulations where animal testing is still mandatory in many cases. PETA, however, argues that existing guidelines should not serve as justification for maintaining animal testing. “It is understandable why animals have been used historically, but that does not justify why this still happens today,” says Hogervorst.
Animal testing stems from a time when human-centered methods did not yet exist. It is now known that animals are intelligent, experience emotions, and have complex social structures. At the same time, studies back then also showed that animal testing often poorly predicts how drugs work in humans. Increasingly, humane, animal-free technologies based on human biology often already predict what happens in humans better than animal testing, Hogervorst argues. That is why she considers animal testing “morally unacceptable” and “scientifically indefensible.”
Moreover, within the current legal frameworks, the definition of an animal experiment remains broad: even the collection of cells or tissues can be considered an animal experiment under certain circumstances. In addition, the housing and living conditions of laboratory animals remain a major ethical concern, due to stress and unnatural behavior in laboratory environments. Consider, for example, monkeys doing somersaults in their cages or mice and guinea pigs plucking their own fur due to stress.
Collaboration
Globally, efforts are underway to modernize regulations, with animal-free methods gaining increasing prominence. PETA is collaborating with governments and the pharmaceutical industry to accelerate this transition, with the goal of a complete phase-out of animal testing, supported by clear deadlines and transparency.
Roche’s approach demonstrates that the industry is in a state of transition: animal testing is being reduced, but not yet fully replaced. For PETA, this is a step forward, but not the end goal. “However, we fully acknowledge that technical, economic, political, and regulatory challenges remain. Any transition period away from animal testing must be strictly monitored, ambitious, and goal-oriented. The most important requirement is that efforts remain focused on eliminating the use of animals as quickly as possible,” says Hogervorst.