Earlier this month, the European parliament has voted for accelerating the limitation (end?) of animal testing for research, regulatory and education purposes. As a reminder, the testing ban on finished cosmetic products applies since 11 September 2004 and the testing ban on ingredients (or combination of ingredients) applies since 11 March 2009.
However, animals are still being used for other purposes. According to the principles of the 3Rs (developed over 50 years ago), the use of animals should be Replaced (by alternative methods, as much as possible), Reduced (less animals for tests) and Refined (i.e. minimizing animal suffering) whenever possible.
With this new vote, the EU parliament appeals for a research policy in favor of valuable, predictive alternative methods, since the 3Rs should be applied without decreasing the protection of human health and of the environment. Indeed, more research is needed to propose, in particular, relevant in vitro models that can predict human outcomes. In the frame of the pharmaceutical industry, the idea would be to get models that effectively mimic the complexity of human tissues/organs, allowing to conclude about the toxicity and efficiency of drugs.
Lately, new in vivo-like 3D in vitro models – alone or combined with complex systems like microfluidics, bioMEMs, etc. should pave the way to more predictive and animal-free science.
In HCS Pharma, we are all committed to propose such alternatives, thanks to the use of BIOMIMESYS® in 3D cell culture, and related in vitro models for brain, adipose, liver and cancer tissues… In this frame, we are also collaborating with a great panel of scientists in academic laboratories: thanks a lot for your work in this direction!
Do you want to talk about possible alternatives? Contact us!
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