EU approves new alternatives to animal testing of drugs

The European Union's Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods has approved six new alternative testing methods that will reduce the need for certain drugs and chemicals to be evaluated on animals. The new tests use cell cultures, rather than animals, to establish the toxicity of cancer drugs and identify contaminated compounds.

The tests approved will not only reduce the number of animals needed for testing, but will also increase their accuracy, thereby making the products concerned safer, according to a press statement. The role of the ECVAM, which is based at the European Commission's Joint Research Center, is to replace, refine and reduce methods of animal testing for cosmetics, drugs and chemicals. Tests validated by the ECVAM must be approved by its Scientific Advisory Committee, composed of representatives of the 25 EU member states, academia, industry and animal welfare organizations before they can be used in laboratories across Europe.

One of the tests is designed to assist the dosing of some highly toxic drugs used in chemotherapy for cancer, a disease which causes almost a million deaths in the EU every year. Using bone marrow culture from mice and cord blood cells from humans, a test has been developed that will decrease the risk of a lethal overdose in the first cohort of patients to which they are administered, a risk that cannot be identified during current preclinical testing strategies.