On 2 April, the European Commission published its annual report entitled “Non-animal methods in science and regulation”. The report shows that 5% overall reduction in animal procedures in the EU and Norway from 2018 to 2022, highlighting progress in alternatives to animal testing. At the same time, the biotechnology sector has been growing rapidly, at more than 18% per year.
The European Commission’s actions to reduce animal testing highlighted in the report, as follows:
- Creation of a roadmap for standardizing in vitro biotech methods, supporting a new generation of advanced non-animal models and methods;
- Exploration of ways to adapt criteria for better use of non-animal data in identifying mutagenic chemicals;
- Preparation of the it’s roadmap for phasing out animal testing in chemical safety assessments, set to be published in 2026;
- Launch of a new virtual reality laboratory to promote non-animal approaches in research and education;
- Development of the BioMedical Models Hub (BimmoH), an automated database organizing information on non-animal models used in biomedical research.