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OECD approves 3 new in vitro skin tests

The three artificial human skin tests are all related to the testing for skin irritation which would replace the need for painful testing on rabbits. These methods in all but a few circumstances will replace the Draize rabbit skin test, developed in the 1940s, which has traditionally been conducted to assess skin irritation by applying chemicals to raw skin on the backs of rabbits.

This approval follows many years of validation studies conducted by ECVAM, the EU body responsible for validating and approving all alternative methods within the EU. These new tests, which are more relevant to human toxicity, are direct applications towards the replacement of animal use in toxicology studies. As new advanced techniques in these areas are further developed, the number of validated alternative tests will increase, thereby further removing the use of harmful animal experimentation. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) is an international group of 33-member countries of which the UK is a founding member.

Article in Scientific American

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