Washington, D.C. — A new national survey commissioned by the Cure Coalition finds that voters overwhelmingly want new drug testing methods proven as safe and effective as current standards before any change to existing research practices. The findings show that voters are especially focused on patient safety, trust in medicine, and keeping U.S. biomedical research strong rather than shifting more research overseas.
Key Findings
- Voters want proven alternatives before ending animal testing. Only 17% of voters want animal testing to continue indefinitely, but 65% say prescription drug testing methods should change only after new alternatives are proven as safe and effective as current ones.
- Policy awareness is low. 56% say they had heard nothing at all about federal efforts to reduce or phase out animal testing for prescription drugs before taking the survey.
- Support for ending animal testing reverses when voters hear the consequences. Voters initially favor immediately ending all animal testing in pharmaceutical drug trials 64% to 29%, but after considering the issues, opinion narrows to 46% in favor and 48% opposed.
- Families prioritize safety over “not tested on animals” by a 51-point margin. 81% say effectiveness is very important for their family’s prescription drugs, 80% say safety standards are very important. The importance of “not tested on animals” is ranked the lowest at 29%, lower even than the importance of medicines being made in the U.S. (45%).
- China concerns cut across the electorate. Nearly three-quarters (74%) say they would be concerned if reducing U.S. animal testing requirements led to more pharmaceutical research and testing in countries like China.
- Voters trust U.S.-developed and tested medicine far more than Chinese medicine. 62% say a drug developed and tested in the United States is safer, compared with just 8% who say a drug developed and tested in China is safer.
- Confidence in FDA oversight of alternatives is limited. Only 40% say they entirely or mostly trust the FDA to ensure that alternatives to animal testing are safe and effective before eliminating all animal testing.
“Voters are sending a clear message: Americans support innovation, but they do not want patients and families put at risk by replacing proven research methods before new alternatives are fully validated,” said Cara Kingan, Executive Director of the Cure Coalition. “This survey shows that safety comes first, and that voters are deeply uneasy with changes that could weaken U.S. standards or push more research to China.”
The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online June 11–12, 2026, by Scott Rasmussen, with field work conducted by RMG Research, Inc. The sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of registered voters. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points.
You can review the survey results on our website.
About Cure Coalition
Cure Coalition advocates for responsible, evidence-based biomedical research that keeps our families safe and keeps trusted U.S. research approaches as the standard. As mothers, healthcare professionals, and concerned citizens, we’re committed to advancing treatments and cures through medicines Americans can count on. Learn more at curecoalition.org.