Animal Testing

Slow adoption of alternatives to animal testing in the current decentralized regulatory framework.

This week, two device testing labs in China landed FDA warning letters; refunds for 1Health.io clients; FDA AR/VR product list expands. 

Despite increased openness by regulators and technological progress, the adoption of alternatives to animal testing remains challenging. The need for data validation by agencies and companies is a big factor.

AI modeling can predict which animal tests are useful and necessary, saving money for companies and meeting objectives set by regulators in the US and EU, VeriSIM Life’s CEO and founder Jo Varshney tells the Pink Sheet.

In addition to sustainability, Myers noted DEI and advancing alternatives to animal testing among key priorities for the group. “We have member companies that really lead the way on many of those. We want to be able to amplify their good work and their messaging, because they are good corporate citizens” and “it’s what consumers are demanding anyway,” he said in an interview.

The use of the RPT is to no longer be required in any text of the European Pharmacopoeia and medicine developers will have to select a suitable in vitro test to control the pyrogenicity of their product.

Animal advocacy group PETA claims documents recently made public on listening sessions between the US Food and Drug Administration and sunscreen manufacturers show FDA is ‘checking a box by pushing decades-old animal tests rather than using modern science’ to assess the safety of sunscreens, despite the agency’s claims that it is encouraging non-animal methods.

House appropriations subcommittee chair Andy Harris, R-MD, says the agency ignored several important factors in recommending that marijuana be reclassified as a Schedule III drug; Califf tells ranking member Sanford Bishop, D-GA, that although work is progressing on animal testing alternatives, 'we're a long way right now' from eliminating animal studies before first-in-human trials.

“Companies can innovate right now, and they have confidence in these tools, these [non-animal] approaches, and they feel they can put these products on the market safely,” said Erin Hill, CEO and president of the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety. “The holdup is that they can’t register these new products, because there’s a lack of confidence in the regulatory community.”

In the year since its establishment, the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety has worked to engage with regulators as they build frameworks for assessing cosmetic safety without animal tests. ICCS president and CEO Erin Hill discusses current challenges and what lies ahead.