Brussels, 22/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 21 March, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) approved six new methods to reduce the number of experiments carried out to test certain drugs and chemical products on animals, by using cell cultures rather than animals to establish the toxicity of cancer drugs and to detect contaminated drugs. Furthermore, these methods will help to improve the accuracy of tests. The role of ECVAM, which is based at the Commission's Joint Research Centre, is to replace, improve and reduce animal testing for cosmetics, drugs and chemical substances. Before they can be used in European laboratories, these methods must be approved by the Scientific Advisory Committee of ECVAM, which is made up of representatives of the Member States, academia, industrial circles and animal welfare organisations.
One of the method's aim is to make it easier to establish the correct dose of certain highly toxic drugs used in chemotherapy to treat cancer (which kills one million people each year in the EU). Another method using cell cultures from mice bone marrow and human cord blood cells all help to reduce the risk of fatal overdoses among patients in the first cohort of patients to which they are administered, a risk which cannot be identified during current pre-clinical testing strategies. According to international studies, this new method will make it possible to predict the effects of the products tested with greater accuracy than evaluations based on animal testing.
Five of the new methods address the issue of bacteria. Our immune system, which has the job of protecting us from bacteria, reacts- if it is unable to distinguish them- not just to live bacteria, but also to dead ones or part of them. Even if it is sterilised, a drug is not necessarily free of all traces of bacteria, which can lead to side-effects (fever, pain and shock). Every year, drugs are tested on 200,000 rabbits before they are put on the market. The new method, which uses human immune cells grown in a laboratory (and which are able to recognise bacteria, just as the human immune system can), reduces not only the number of animals used in laboratories, but also the costs related to experiments. These new methods also have the advantage of being much more efficient than previous animal tests in the detection of contaminated drugs.
The work of ECVAM is financed by the framework-programme for research of the EU, with the support of the Member States, business and animal welfare organisations. By making the best of the scientific progress, ECVAM aims to help increase the safety of patients and animal well-being.