Animal Model Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031F

Infectious Disease is the fastest growing sector, North America is the largest market

The Global Animal Model Market is projected to grow substantially from USD 1.97 billion in 2025 to USD 3.22 billion by 2031, exhibiting an 8.53% compound annual growth rate. These non-human organisms, including rodents, primates, and zebrafish, are crucial for scientific research, replicating human biological systems and disease pathologies to develop medical interventions. Market expansion is primarily driven by the escalating prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases necessitating extensive preclinical testing, coupled with stringent regulatory mandates requiring comprehensive safety and toxicity assessments prior to human clinical trials.

Further bolstering this growth is the increasing research and development (R&D) expenditure by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, with global drugmakers investing nearly $288 billion in R&D in 2024, as reported by BioSpace in May 2025. This significant investment ensures a steady demand for in vivo systems, a fact underscored by Charles River Laboratories' 2024 revenue of $4.05 billion. Government funding also plays a vital role, exemplified by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) receiving $46.995 billion for FY2025, which provides essential support for academic and public research.

However, the market faces a significant challenge due to escalating ethical scrutiny and stringent international regulations on animal welfare, which increasingly promote the '3Rs' principles - Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. These pressures lead to higher compliance costs and longer approval times for in vivo studies, redirecting research budgets towards non-animal testing methods and resulting in reduced animal usage, such as the UK's drop to approximately 77% of 2019 levels by 2025 according to the UK Bioscience Sector Coalition. Concurrently, the sector is being reshaped by key trends.

The accelerated adoption of humanized immune system models is enhancing translatability, especially in immuno-oncology, with Biocytogen executing around 200 therapeutic antibody co-development and licensing agreements for its RenMice platforms by late 2024. Additionally, there's a strategic shift towards outsourcing model generation to Contract Research Organizations (CROs), driven by the complexity and cost of maintaining genetic lines in-house. This outsourcing trend is evident in Charles River Laboratories' Research Models and Services segment generating $829.4 million in annual revenue in 2024, reflecting sustained industry reliance on specialized external providers.

Market Drivers

The market's growth is predominantly fueled by the increasing research and development (R&D) investments from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which demand robust preclinical validation using in vivo systems for novel therapeutics. This financial commitment ensures a consistent supply chain for various animal species used in toxicology and efficacy studies.

For instance, drugmakers globally invested nearly $288 billion in R&D in 2024, as noted by BioSpace in May 2025, underscoring the reliance on animal models. The sector also benefits from a surge in government funding for biomedical research, providing essential liquidity for academic and public institutions that extensively utilize genetically modified and disease-specific models. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, received $46.995 billion for fiscal year 2025, according to Congress.gov in December 2025, which acts as a stabilizing force, ensuring continuous demand for biological tools in grant-funded studies.

Market Challenges

A significant impediment to the Global Animal Model Market's expansion stems from stringent international regulations concerning animal welfare and intensifying ethical scrutiny. These regulatory frameworks increasingly enforce the '3Rs' principles - Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement - mandating a systematic decrease in live animal use for scientific experimentation. This environment compels pharmaceutical and biotechnology entities to face higher compliance costs and prolonged approval timelines for in vivo studies, consequently discouraging the procurement of animal models. This redirection of research budgets toward compliance and alternative testing methods has led to reduced transaction volumes, with scientific procedures involving animals in the UK dropping to approximately 77% of 2019 levels by 2025, as reported by the UK Bioscience Sector Coalition, thereby dampening revenue potential.

Market Trends

The market is undergoing transformative shifts, notably with the accelerated adoption of humanized immune system models. These advanced biological systems are becoming vital for improving the translatability of preclinical studies to human clinical outcomes, particularly in immuno-oncology, by replacing murine immune components with functional human counterparts. This trend is quantitatively demonstrated by Biocytogen's execution of approximately 200 therapeutic antibody co-development and licensing agreements for its RenMice humanized model platforms by the end of 2024, as per their June 2025 press release.

Additionally, a strategic shift towards outsourcing model generation to Contract Research Organizations (CROs) is evident. This move, driven by the increasing complexity and cost of maintaining sophisticated genetic lines in-house, allows pharmaceutical developers to convert fixed infrastructure costs into variable service expenditures while leveraging specialized technical expertise. Charles River Laboratories' Research Models and Services (RMS) segment, which generated $829.4 million in annual revenue in 2024, as reported in February 2025, exemplifies the industry's sustained reliance on outsourced model management and production capabilities.

Key Market Players

• Charles River Laboratories International Inc.
• The Jackson Laboratory
• Taconic Biosciences, Inc.
• Janvier Labs S.A.S.
• HBM Holdings Limited
• Crown Bioscience Inc.
• Inotiv Inc.
• Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
• BioSpherix, Ltd

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Animal Model Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

Animal Model Market, by Animal Type:

• Mice
• Rat
• Guinea Pigs
• Rabbits
• Hamsters
• Others

Animal Model Market, by Application:

• Cancer
• Immunological Disease
• Infectious Disease
• Others

Animal Model Market, by Distribution Channel:

• Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies
• Academic Research Institute
• Contract Research Organization

Animal Model Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Animal Model Market.

Available Customizations:

With the given market data, the publisher offers customizations according to a company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

Company Information

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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