Euro-funded scheme could spell an end to animal testing

Euro-funded scheme could spell an end to animal testing
22 Apr 2010 08:01


A EUROPEAN Commission-funded initiative was launched on Monday as part of growing international efforts to revolutionise chemical and drug safety testing in a way which could mean the end of animal testing.
It would spare at least one million animals from suffering and death each year in the European Union alone.
The initiative AXLR8 is a unique collaboration between the Humane Society International (HSI), formerly the Dr Hadwen Trust, and academic scientists and technical experts from Germany and Belgium. It has been awarded a half-million-Euro grant from the European Commission and will help to monitor and support European research to modernise the science of safety testing, and strengthen international co-ordination in this area.

Toxicity

“The vision is of a not-so-distant future in which most toxicity testing is carried out using a combination of computer modelling and human cell tests, which can already be performed with unparalleled efficiency using ‘high throughput’ testing robots capable of working nearly 1,500-times faster than a human technician,” said HSI director Troy Seidle spokesman.
“Exposing relatively short-lived animals to unrealistic doses of chemicals in sterile laboratory conditions is a primitive approach to assessing chemical effects on humans in real-life conditions. The scientists and global corporations HSI is working with are only too aware of the urgent need to bring the science of safety testing into the 21st century.
“If utilised to their full potential, cutting-edge cell and computer-based methods could transform toxicity testing, making it quicker, cheaper and more applicable to real-life human exposure scenarios. As well as having enormous benefits for human health and environmental protection, this transition towards 21st century toxicity could significantly reduce and ultimately replace testing on animals.”
Toxicity data is needed to evaluate chemicals used in everything from cosmetics and household cleaners to pharmaceuticals, food additives, and pesticides. However, scientists and legislators across the EU and United States are coming to recognise that conventional tests, in which animals such as dogs, rodents and rabbits are given unrealistically large doses of chemicals, are too costly, time-consuming, and of uncertain relevance to human health effects to meet the demands for better and faster data as part of new chemicals regulations.

Recent report

A recent report by the US Food and Drug Administration estimated that new drug candidates have only an eight per cent chance of reaching the market. For example, to evaluate the cancer-causing potential of a single chemical in a conventional rodent test takes up to five years, 800 animals and three million Euros. For the same price and without any use of animals, as many as 350 chemicals could be tested in less than one week in 200 different cell or gene tests using a robot-automated high throughput approach.