The National Institutes of Health announced that it would end its support for invasive research on chimpanzees and retire the 50 chimps that it had set aside for future biomedical research.

The decision, announced Wednesday, brings to a close years of controversy about federally funded primate experimentation, and follows a 2013 decision by the N.I.H. to retire all but 50 of its chimpanzees to animal sanctuaries.

After two and a half years, no proposal requesting use of the remaining chimpanzees has moved forward, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the N.I.H., in a news briefing on Wednesday with reporters.

“We find no evidence that there is a need to continue to do research of an invasive sort on chimpanzees, not now and not going into the future,” Dr. Collins said.