Industry News
ARDF Offers Research Grants – May 1 Deadline
February 10, 2017The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF), which promotes alternatives to the use of laboratory animals in research, testing, and education, is currently soliciting research proposals for its 2017 Alternatives Research Grant Program. ARDF is offering up to $40,000 to support individual projects. Preference will be given to projects based in U.S. universities and research institutions using pathway-based “21st century toxicology” approaches. Proposals will be evaluated on their potential to significantly replace or reduce animal use and their scientific merit and feasibility. The application deadline for the grants is May 1. Learn more.
New Advice on Using Non-Animal Test Methods
February 10, 2017European Chemicals Agency
ECHA’s updated guidance gives advice on how to use non-animal test methods, which are now the default for many endpoints. Registrants are encouraged to take the changes into account when deciding their testing strategies. Read more.
PETA: New Chinese Regulations Will Effectively End Animal Testing Requirement for Non-Special Use Cosmetics
January 23, 2017Global Cosmetics News
PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo has issued a statement in response to a new regulation issued by China's Food and Drug Administration's (CFDA), which allows certain new cosmetics to undergo a simplified registration process with the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, potentially allowing them to bypass the CFDA's requirements for tests on animals. Read more.
Switzerland Joins Fight on Animal Cruelty with Ban on Animal-Tested Cosmetics
January 18, 2017Global 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. Read more.
EPA Announces Start of Voluntary Pilot Program to Reduce Animal Testing
December 22, 2016The 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 of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). EPA states that the goal of the pilot program is to “evaluate the utility and acceptability of the GHS Mixtures Equation as an alternative to animal oral and inhalation toxicity studies for pesticide formulations.”
Dutch Government Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Safety Testing by 2025
December 22, 2016PETA.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 substances forced down their throats or injected into their bodies, causing sickness, convulsions, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging, and worse before they are killed – a move that can save countless animals.
PETA Int’l Science Consortium Announces Chance to Win a $100,000 Award
November 29, 2016PETA
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 also purchasing similar equipment for IIVS in support of our efforts to replace animals in inhalation testing. Read more.
What Does China’s Approval of the First Contemporary Non-Animal Testing Method Mean for Cruelty Free Cosmetics?
November 22, 2016The 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 last several years to provide training and education around non-animal methods for safety assessments in conjunction with China's ongoing efforts to modernize their testing requirements and reduce their reliance on animals.
Taiwan Bans Cosmetics Animal Testing from 2019
October 26, 2016Chemical Watch
Taiwan has passed a bill to ban cosmetics testing on animals. With a three-year implementation period in place, it will take effect from October 2019.
Advancing Non-animal Testing Methods: First Set of Novel Knowledge Tools Published
October 18, 2016ScienceDaily
An adverse outcome pathway, or AOP, is a highly structured way of describing a toxicological process which can lead to an adverse health effect in humans or wildlife, caused by an unsafe exposure to a chemical substance. The first five adverse outcome pathways have now been published by experts. The AOPs are novel knowledge management tools in toxicology and are useful for supporting risk assessment to human health. They are also valuable for helping to avoid animal testing through the use of alternative methods.