A French man died last month and five others in the same clinical trial were hospitalized after they took an experimental drug. The drug had been deemed safe for humans after having been tested on chimpanzees in preclinical trials.

The National Institutes of Health’s recent decision to end federally supported chimpanzee experimentation could prevent future fatalities like this by promoting more human-relevant research methods.

Twenty of those government-owned chimpanzees currently housed at a testing laboratory in San Antonio, Texas, are next in line to be transferred to a sanctuary. As the use of chimpanzees in medical experiments draws to a close, it’s important to examine the superior, nonanimal research methods that will benefit patients.