News & IIVS Activities

Switzerland Joins Fight on Animal Cruelty with Ban on Animal-Tested Cosmetics

January 18, 2017
Global Cosmetics News

Switzerland has announced a complete ban on sales of cosmetics that are tested on animals. The decision follows the announcement in March last year by the Swiss Federal Council that saw it ban the marketing of cosmetics that have been tested on animals abroad, with the outright ban coming into effect at the end of 2016.

2017 Practical Methods for In Vitro Toxicology Workshop Wraps Up

January 12, 2017

IIVS welcomed twelve individuals from industry and academia for its 2017 Practical Methods in In Vitro Toxicology Workshop. The intensive four-day workshop included a combination of lectures and hands-on laboratory activities on the latest in vitro test methods. The next workshop will be held in January 2018. In the lab Hands-on laboratory experience...

EPA Announces Start of Voluntary Pilot Program to Reduce Animal Testing

December 22, 2016
The National Law Review

On December 20, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)announced the start of a pilot program to evaluate the usefulness and acceptability of a mathematical tool (the GHS Mixtures Equation), which is used in the Globally Harmonized System...

Dutch Government Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Safety Testing by 2025

December 22, 2016
PETA.org UK

PETA UK and PETA Netherlands staff attended a meeting in Hague last week at which Dutch Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Martijn van Dam announced his intention for the Netherlands to end the use of animals in safety tests for chemicals, food ingredients, pesticides, veterinary medicines, and vaccines by 2025. This means that mice, rats, rabbits, and other animals will no longer have these ...

Director of CFDA, National Institute for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) Visits IIVS

December 15, 2016

Composed of 11 technical institutes, the NIFDC is responsible for the registration and post market surveillance of drugs, traditional Chinese medicines, medical devices, food and cosmetics. In addition to inspecting and testing these products for safety, the NIFDC publishes National Reference Standards for testing methods (such as the newly published standard for the In Vitro 3T3 NRU Phototoxicity...

First Non-Animal Test Method Accepted by China FDA

December 1, 2016

IIVS and stakeholders around the world welcomed the announcement last month by the CFDA that data from a non-animal test method can now be used to substantiate the safety of cosmetics made in China. The test, known as the In Vitro 3T3 NRU Phototoxicity Test (

PETA Int’l Science Consortium Announces Chance to Win a $100,000 Award

November 29, 2016
PETA

PETA is accepting proposals to award a VITROCELL® exposure system—valued at up to $100,000—to researchers who will use it to avoid testing on animals. The VITROCELL exposure system can be used to deliver aerosolized test substances to human lung cells to predict human health effects more accurately than tests on animals. DEADLINE: March 30, 2017.  The PETA International Science Consortium is...

What Does China’s Approval of the First Contemporary Non-Animal Testing Method Mean for Cruelty Free Cosmetics?

November 22, 2016
The Huffington Post

IIVS' work with the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) and its subsidiary body, the National Institute for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) has paid off with the recent approval of the T3 Neutral Red Uptake Phototoxicity Test, the first  non-animal test method that can be used for safety tests in cosmetics sold in China. This article references IIVS's work with the CFDA and NIFDC over the ...

IIVS Holds Workshop for University of Maryland Students

November 21, 2016

IIVS hosted its fourth annual toxicology workshop for students from the University of Maryland College Park chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES UMD).  The workshop, held on Nov. 19 at IIVS in Gaithersburg, MD, featured a combination of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on laboratory sessions introducing the students to the concepts of adverse outcome pathways and approaches to ...

IIVS Releases Training Video to Replace Animals in Testing

November 19, 2016

GAITHERSBURG, MD – October 12, 2016 – Funded by a grant from the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA), the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, Inc.(IIVS) has released a technical training video that describes a cell-based in vitro method for assessing phototoxicity - the potential for chemicals to cause damage after being exposed to light. The 19-minute ...