The approval in July of a law on animal experimentation in Italy could irreversibly jeopardize the country's medical research, particularly in drug development, and exclude Italy's scientists from international funding (see Nature 499, 258–259; 2013; and Nature http://doi.org/nk3; 2013).

Initially intended to replace a European Union directive that regulates the use of laboratory animals with sensible cautionary guidelines, the draft law was repeatedly amended to satisfy antivivisectionists. The law now forbids xenotransplantation (a widely used method in which human tumour cells are implanted into mice to test cancer therapies) and bans the use of animals for studying drug abuse.

A government initiative is urgently needed to modify the regulations while maintaining rigorous and humane animal experimentation.