Commission enters partnership with industry to reduce animal testing
The European Commission has agreed a partnership with industry associations in the pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cosmetics and biotechnology sectors aimed at finding alternatives to animal testing. The 'European partnership to promote alternative approaches to animal testing' was agreed at a conference in Brussels on 7 November, and by establishing an action programme with concrete activities it is hoped that the initiative will lead to a reduction in the estimated 10.7 million animals used for testing purposes in Europe each year. Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik, who hosted the conference along with Commission Vice President for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen, said: 'The agreement with different industry sectors is a major step forward in making validated alternative methods available. We will support the partnership by increasing our efforts to support research, development and evaluation of alternative testing methods under the new research framework programme.' The '3 Rs Declaration' agreed by the Commission and industry associations, including CEFIC (the European chemical industry council), ECPA (the European crop protection association) and EFPIA (the European federation of pharmaceutical industries and associations), establishes a voluntary partnership aimed at refining, reducing or replacing (the three Rs) animal tests. An action plan will be drawn up in the first quarter of 2006 proposing measures to promote the development, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative approaches. Such measures could include the mapping of research activities, research cooperation, the development of intelligent testing strategies, and practical mechanisms to gain regulatory acceptance for alternative approaches. Commissioner Verheugen said he realised that the subject of animal testing is a highly sensitive one, touching upon a number of societal issues such as ethics, health, economics and science. 'I can assure you that I am personally committed to animal protection [... but] as long as scientists tell me that animal tests are still needed in the various industrial sectors to assess risks to human health, we have to continue our efforts in identifying alternative methods. 'Unfortunately the process of developing, validating and legally accepting alternative methods is slow and, to some extent, uncoordinated due to the setting of different priorities in the sectors concerned,' he continued. 'Against this background a coordinated approach [with industry] might help, in our view, to overcome obstacles.' Mr Verheugen stressed that the EU's ultimate aim is not simply to reduce animal testing, but to bring it to a complete end. But as well as the moral imperative to find alternative methods, there is also a commercial argument to be made. '[A]lternative testing methods are innovations, which benefit the competitiveness of European industry,' he reminded listeners. Indeed, the most commercially successful alternative method developed to date, which replaces the rabbit pyrogen test with a human cell culture test, has a global market volume of 200 million euro, and could save the lives of 200,000 rabbits each year. Commissioner Verheugen concluded by noting that in the last two decades, science has switched its focus from animal experimentation towards alternative approaches, with the result that animal use has more than halved during that time. 'This development demonstrates that we are on a good track. But let's try to be more ambitious and promote this development further. The 'European partnership to promote alternative approaches to animal testing' shows the way and the right direction.'