EU agrees to alternatives to animal drug tests

The European Union has approved six alternative drug-testing methods to replace experiments on animals in a move that will help to save up to 200,000 rabbits each year, its executive arm said on Tuesday.

The change will also increase the accuracy of the tests, thereby making the products concerned safer, the European Commission said.

One of the new tests, which use cell cultures instead of animals, will be used to work out dosages for chemotherapy anti-cancer treatment with bone marrow culture from mice and cord blood cells from humans.

The five other tests are meant to detect bacteria in medicines. Each year, 200,000 rabbits are used for such bacteria tests and many of them die, a Commission spokeswoman said.

“The European Union has a clear policy to reduce and replace animal testing as much as possible,” she added.

The tests were approved by a EU committee of scientific experts from the 25 European Union member states, academics, industry and animal welfare organisations.

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