The UK government has announced a new strategy to accelerate the phase-out of animal testing in scientific research, backed by £75 million in funding.
This follows the FDA’s very similar announcement in April this year, which said it would favour “more effective, human-relevant methods”.
The UK government said, “The strategy recognises that phasing out the use of animals in science can only happen where reliable and effective alternative methods, with the same level of safety for human exposure, can replace them.”. They’ve listed these as those potential replacements, which also mimics the FDA’s announcement:
- Organ-on-a-Chip Systems – tiny devices that mimic how human organs work using real human cells
- Greater use of AI to analyse huge amounts of information about molecules to predict whether new medicines will be safe and work well in humans
- 3D bioprinted tissues could create realistic human tissue samples, from skin to liver, for testing, providing lifelike environments for studying human biology and checking if substances are toxic
There is a difference between the two plans, which I learned from Dr. Priya Baraniak’s presentation at Advanced Therapies Congress last week: the UK plan has timelines and commitments, while the US does not. Priya recommended we do the same.
Here are the targets for the UK:
- Ending regulatory testing on animals for skin/eye irritation and sensitisation by the end of 2026.
- Phasing out mouse-based Botox potency tests and moving to DNA-based methods for detecting contamination in human medicines by 2027.
- Reducing pharmacokinetic studies (tracking how drugs move through the body) involving dogs and non-human primates by 2030.
They’ve also mentioned how they’ll support and implement this project:
- A new hub will be set up to connect researchers, technology, data, and expertise.
- A separate UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods will streamline regulatory approval processes.
- The Medical Research Council (MRC), Innovate UK, and Wellcome Trust have committed £15.9 million toward advancing ‘human in vitro models’, such as organ-on-a-chip systems, for studying liver disease, brain conditions, cancer, pain disorders, and blood vessel biology without using animals.
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