The animal rights group attended the Society of Toxicology (SOT) annual conference in San Diego, US this week led by science advisor Amy Clippinger who told Outsourcing-pharma.com the idea is to track developments in the sector and to present research.
“Participating in SOT's annual meeting gives us a forum to make sure we stay on top of the most cutting edge approaches that some companies are developing to replace, reduce or refine the use of animals in experiments.”
“We present our own original research and information on the work we do to ensure that these strategies to minimize animal use are approved for use by the appropriate agencies, and also that they are put into use as widely as possible once they’ve been approved.”
Testing drugs and vaccines on animals is a legal requirement in the US and EU, although companies are free to develop alternatives according to PETA research associate, Jeff Brown.
“Laws on the books today require the use of animal experiments before a drug can be marketed. Government requirements vary from country to country, but no drug has yet been approved without animal testing to date.”
Alternatives
But that does not mean there is not a desire for alternatives according to Brown, who said: “Many companies are already using innovative non-animal methods in place of animal-based experiments that were previously the only available option.”
PETA was not the only group at SOT advocating for alternatives to animal testing.
Chris Corsbie from Battelle Life Sciences Research told us this week that his firm monitors alternatives to keep pace with the changing environment.
He said the Battelle is "proficient in robust in vitro models for drug safety and then predicting when these new techniques will become acceptable and embraced by the FDA” adding that “the firm a goal of minimizing the use of animals in research.”