The European Commission (EC) proposed this Monday the progressive elimination of animal testing in the assessment of the safety of chemical products, with immediate application by the Member States of the European Union (EU) and whose effectiveness will be evaluated by 2029.
The roadmap, which is divided into three pillars and includes 22 actions, foresees, according to information from the community executive, the gradual replacement of animal testing for chemical safety assessments in 15 areas, including chemical products for industrial and consumer use, pesticides and biocides, pharmaceutical products and additives for human and animal food.
The roadmap also defines indicators that will help monitor progress in implementing actions and recommendations.
The first pillar of the proposal aims to accelerate the development and adoption of approaches that do not use animals and includes specific recommendations to replace, reduce, or improve animal testing in human health and environmental safety assessments.
The aim of the second pillar is to keep Europe at the forefront of research and innovation, in a broad ecosystem of research and business innovation to develop approaches without animals.
Actions include leveraging artificial intelligence and large data sets (big data) for method development. The third pillar concerns promoting collaboration with international regulators.
The EC will begin implementation of the roadmap immediately, in close collaboration with Member States, EU agencies and stakeholders.
By 2029, the EC will organize a high-level conference to take stock of progress, focused on increasing the adoption of non-animal approaches in all relevant EU legislation, including REACH, the EU chemicals legislation.
