EU roadmap for phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments: Recommendations from a multi-stakeholder roundtable

The commitment to develop a roadmap for phasing out the use of animals for chemical safety assessments was part of the European Commission’s response to the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing”. The roadmap aims to outline milestones and specific actions to be implemented in the short to long term to ultimately phase out animal testing for chemical safety assessments. To advance this goal and help define a structure of the roadmap, a multi-stakeholder roundtable workshop was organized by five animal protection non-governmental organizations in June 2024. The roundtable aimed to explore and define key elements and organizational structures for shaping the roadmap and identify pathways to facilitate the transition to a non-animal testing regulatory framework. Participants discussed a range of critical issues such as revising legislation and guidance, facilitating validation/qualification and regulatory acceptance, strengthening coordination, providing education and training in non-animal approaches, transparency and accessibility to data, establishing metrics to measure progress, and securing funding. The importance of a multi-faceted approach integrating scientific, regulatory, policy, ethical, societal, and practical dimensions was emphasized, along with the critical role of transdisciplinary collaboration and combining diverse knowledge, ideas, and technologies to achieve optimal outcomes. This report summarizes the main findings and discussion points and provides concrete recommendations. These are intended to facilitate the Commission’s work to develop the roadmap and may serve as a valuable resource for similar initiatives worldwide.

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Publication Details

Journal
ALTEX
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.2503241
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Animal testing and alternatives
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
21.19
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article

EU roadmap for phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments: Recommendations from a multi-stakeholder roundtable

Helena Kanďárová, Susanne Noreen Kolle, Manon Beekhuijzen, Katia Lacasse et al.
9 citations
ALTEX
Animal testing and alternatives
21.19
article

EU roadmap for phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments: Recommendations from a multi-stakeholder roundtable

Helena Kanďárová, Susanne Noreen Kolle, Manon Beekhuijzen, Katia Lacasse, Beate Isabella Escher, Marco Corvaro, Helder Constantino, R. Fernández, Donna S. Macmillan, Tomasz Sobański, Petra Kern, Giorgia Pallocca, Romana Hornek-Gausterer, Gilly Stoddart, Julia I. Baines, Lilas Courtot, Gavin Maxwell, L. Bastos, Jelle Vriend, Stephanie Nadzialek, François Busquet, Isabelle Lee, Kirsty Reid, Matthias Herzler, Merel Ritskes‐Hoitinga, Marion Revel, Laura Holden, Amaia Irizar, Carl Westmoreland, Orla Moriarty, Laurence Walder, Emeline Gougeon, Love Hansell, Julia Pochat, Dylan Underhill, Mandy Veillette
article en
9 citations

Abstract

The commitment to develop a roadmap for phasing out the use of animals for chemical safety assessments was part of the European Commission’s response to the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing”. The roadmap aims to outline milestones and specific actions to be implemented in the short to long term to ultimately phase out animal testing for chemical safety assessments. To advance this goal and help define a structure of the roadmap, a multi-stakeholder roundtable workshop was organized by five animal protection non-governmental organizations in June 2024. The roundtable aimed to explore and define key elements and organizational structures for shaping the roadmap and identify pathways to facilitate the transition to a non-animal testing regulatory framework. Participants discussed a range of critical issues such as revising legislation and guidance, facilitating validation/qualification and regulatory acceptance, strengthening coordination, providing education and training in non-animal approaches, transparency and accessibility to data, establishing metrics to measure progress, and securing funding. The importance of a multi-faceted approach integrating scientific, regulatory, policy, ethical, societal, and practical dimensions was emphasized, along with the critical role of transdisciplinary collaboration and combining diverse knowledge, ideas, and technologies to achieve optimal outcomes. This report summarizes the main findings and discussion points and provides concrete recommendations. These are intended to facilitate the Commission’s work to develop the roadmap and may serve as a valuable resource for similar initiatives worldwide.

ALTEXVol. 42(3)
European Medicines Agency (NL), Humane Society of the United States (US), Unilever (United Kingdom) (GB), Charles River Laboratories (Netherlands) (NL), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE), Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), University of Bedfordshire (GB), Altran (France) (FR), Utrecht University (NL), Aarhus University (DK), Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (US), Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (DE), European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (BE), Society of Toxicology (US), European Federation of Animal Science (IT), Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (FI), Foundation Center (US), Stuttgart Technical University of Applied Sciences (DE), European Chemical Industry Council (BE), Environment Agency Austria (AT), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (NL), BASF (Germany) (DE), Procter & Gamble (Belgium) (BE), The Geneva Association (CH), Cosmetics Europe (BE), Corteva (United States) (US), Centre of Experimental Medicine of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Architects Council of Europe (BE), European Chemicals Agency, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH), International Society of Nephrology (BE), University of Birmingham (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Animal testing and alternatives
21.19
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