Supporting efforts to promote non-animal approaches in U.S. federal agencies

21 September 2020

by Lindsay Marshall

With representatives from 16 U.S. federal agencies that engage in or rely on information from animal testing and research, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) is uniquely positioned to help to promote the use of non-animal tests in the United States.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a co-founding member of the BioMed21 Collaboration, and our legislative arm, the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF), are pleased to support ICCVAM’s efforts to help federal agencies work together on the development, use and acceptance of new non-animal test methods and strategies.

As part of this support, the HSUS and HSLF recently presented public comments at an ICCVAM public forum.

We urged federal agencies to:

• critically evaluate traditional animal models to help build confidence in new non-animal approaches.
• regularly analyze whether the animal data submitted to agencies was necessary in making regulatory risk assessments.
• quickly incorporate non-animal tests into testing strategies and encourage the preferred use of these new methods to reduce the need for additional animal testing.

We also spoke about the need for ICCVAM member agencies to prioritize funding for non-animal test methods and strategies.

Click here to read the full written comments.