New Alternatives to Animal Tests

Six new alternative testing methods for drugs and chemicals will reduce the number of animals used in laboratories.

Cell cultures will be used to establish the toxicity of cancer drugs and identify contaminated drugs. Using bone marrow cells from mice and cord blood cells from humans, new tests have been developed that will decrease the risk of lethal overdose in the first cohort of patients to which the drugs are administered. The number of animals needed for testing will be reduced and the tests will be more accurate, thereby increasing the safety of the products.

Five of the new tests have been developed to detect trace amounts of bacteria in drugs, which can lead to side-effects such as fever, pain, and toxic shock. Every year 200,000 rabbits are used to test the drugs before they are marketed. The new method uses human cells grown in the laboratory, which can detect bacteria in the same way as the human immune system. These tests will reduce the number of animals used for testing and also the costs of testing. They are far more effective in finding contaminated drugs than the previous animal tests.

The tests were approved by the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM, Ispra, Italy). ECVAM's role is to replace, refine, and reduce methods of animal testing for cosmetics, drugs, and chemicals. Tests approved by ECVAM must be validated by its Scientific Advisory Committee composed of representatives of the 25 European Union (EU, Brussels, Belgium) member states, academia, industry, and animal welfare organizations before they can be used in labs across Europe.

The work of ECVAM is funded by the EU's Research Framework Program, with support from member states, industry, and animal welfare associations.



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