Strategic Design of Alternative Methods to Reduce Animal Testing

QSAR has been part of scientific research for more than 50 years, but the power of this QSAR to make safety assessment for chemicals more efficient has only come to light with modern computers. Today, when many kinds of animal tests are needed to judge the safety of a chemical, QSAR models can already virtually eliminate the need for a number of commonly used screening tests. Most importantly, reducing animal testing can be achieved by expanding QSAR screening methods for all kinds of animal testing.  This goal can be achieved in the next decade with your help.

Incentives for governments to support QSAR research are small, since the first priority of regulatory agencies is to protect public health and the environment. As long as animal testing is paid for by industry and satisfies that priority, a government may not find a compelling reason to fund better approaches.

Unfortunately, incentives for industry to support QSAR are also small since, from a business perspective, regulatory processes that are already known pose less uncertainty.   Also, since only a few percent of chemicals are now reviewed, some businesses fear that QSAR may give regulators the opportunity to screen tens of thousands of chemicals that would otherwise not be reviewed. Consequently, the incentive for improving chemical safety assessment processes must come from a public who wants both government and industry to find a better approach that does not require such extensive use of animal testing.

The International QSAR Foundation, along with its sponsors and research partnerships, brings QSAR technology into the drive to reduce the reliance on animal testing in safety assessments.