BRUSSELS, Belgium—Global efforts to promote alternatives to testing on animals received a significant boost through the signing of a cooperation agreement by international bodies, including the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), tasked with the validation of alternative test methods.
A cooperation agreement that should give new impetus to the worldwide availability of scientifically proven alternatives to animal test methods has been signed by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), which is part of the Commission's Joint Research Centre, together with its equivalent in the U.S. (ICCVAM), Japan (JACVAM) and Canada's Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau.
European Commissioner for science and research, Janez Potočnik, emphasized the positive impacts of scientific international cooperation. He said: "Reducing animal testing, both out of concern for animal welfare and ethical issues, and protecting consumer safety are two major objectives of this international agreement. I expect that European, American, Japanese and Canadian scientists working together will more rapidly identify, scientifically sound alternative testing methods.”
The agreement establishes enhanced international cooperation and coordination on the scientific validation and evaluation of in-vitro toxicity testing methods. Strengthened collaboration among the signatories will ensure that alternative methods are reproducible based on sound science and able to accurately identify health hazards. This, in turn, should facilitate test methods that are widely accepted by regulatory bodies in the EU, U.S., Japan, Canada and internationally by the OECD, for example.
It is expected that, as a result of the agreement, testing methods that undergo scientific validation will be more credible and more rapidly applied by the testing community.
The reinforced collaboration among the signatories will formalize the way they already work together in test method evaluation, validation studies, independent scientific peer review and recommendations from regulatory authorities. The organizations will also work together to develop harmonized recommendations on regulatory issues and develop peer-review processing mechanisms.