Countries Unite to Reduce Animal Testing in Toxicology Testing

Agencies in the US, Japan, Canada and the EU have signed an memorandum of cooperation to reduce animal testing. From the NIH press release:

Representatives from four international agencies, including the director of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), today signed a memorandum of cooperation that could reduce the number of animals required for consumer product safety testing worldwide. The agreement between the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union will yield globally coordinated scientific recommendations on alternative toxicity testing methods that should speed their adoption in each of these countries, thus reducing the number of animals needed for product safety testing. The memorandum is available at http://iccvam.niehs.nih.gov/docs/about_docs/ICATM-MOC.pdf.

"Signing this international agreement demonstrates our commitment to finding and advancing alternatives to animal testing," said Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., director of the NTP and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. "This agreement will help us achieve greater efficiency by avoiding duplication of effort and allowing us to leverage limited resources."