Pharmacy Council of India Takes Action on Cruel Forced Swim Test After PETA India Push

For Immediate Release:

14 April 2025

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Delhi – After receiving a scientific critique detailing the cruel and pointless forced swim test from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, the Pharmacy Council of India has just directed all agencies under its purview to review and take necessary action on the continued use of the widely debunked experiment.

In the forced swim test, mice, hamsters, and other small animals are dosed with test substances, placed in inescapable beakers filled with water, and made to swim to keep from drowning—purportedly to shed light on human depression. The test has been heavily criticized by scientists who argue that floating is not a sign of depression or despair, but rather an indicator that the animals are simply saving energy and adapting to a new environment. Research suggests the test may even be less reliable than a coin toss to determine the effectiveness of antidepressant medications.

“Forcing terrified animals to swim for their lives is both abysmally cruel and utterly irrelevant to human depression,” says Dr Anjana Aggarwal, PETA India’s Science Policy Advisor. “PETA India calls on regulatory agencies to ban this indefensible junk science and invest in cutting-edge, animal-free research.”

After hearing from PETA entities, government agencies, universities, and many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies have pledged not to permit, conduct, or fund the forced swim test. PETA India is calling on The Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals and other regulatory and accreditation bodies to follow suit.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA India’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow PETA India on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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