EU: Reducing animal testing:

Commission agrees partnership with industry

Reducing animal testing is the aim of a new "European partnership to promote alternative approaches to animal testing". Industry associations from the pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cosmetics, and biotechnology sectors and the European Commission have agreed on this partnership on the occasion of the conference on alternative approaches to animal testing "Europe Goes Alternative", which took place in Brussels today.

It was jointly hosted by Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen and Commissioner Janez Potočnik. The development of new methods will not only reduce animal testing, but also increase competitiveness of European industry. The commercially most successful alternative method, which replaces the "rabbit pyrogen test" for bacterial impurities in drugs with a test using human cells, has a world-wide market volume of ? 200 million and could save the life of 200,000 rabbits a year (see IP/03/662).

Source: Reducing animal testing...
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Link: EU plans to cut animal tests


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