Wide-scale collaboration shows potential for innovation in animal testing

While undoubtedly an essential part of the drug development process at present, animal testing remains a contentious one.

Animal testing is a key area where data collection and data sharing could represent an important opportunity for the industry to make changes and steps towards new ways of working. Now 30 major pharma companies, regulators from Europe and the USA, contract research organizations and academic institutions have come together in an international cross-company data sharing initiative, which aims to analyze historic practice in the use of recovery animals in toxicology studies and to identify opportunities to make improvements in future practice.

This collaboration is jointly led by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The results of the study have been published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.