Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:36

Toxicology: FDA wants to cooperate with European researchers Featured

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants to collaborate with European researchers in developing new toxicology tools that advance non-animal based safety science and health research.

Speaking at a European Parliament workshop in Brussels, which was hosted by teh MEP Mario Pirillo, Dr. Donald Prater of the FDA’s Europe office said that “collaboration is essential to define needed pathways and catalyse change.” He said the FDA and the National Institute of Health in the US have launched a new regulatory science programme including support for novel approaches for transforming toxicology.

Dr. Prater echoed the general consensus amongst experts at the meeting that 21st century toxicology is moving away from animal-based techniques. “It is clear that in vivo animal studies may not be the gold standard that new toxicology methods are compared against,” he said. “There is a need to determine the relevance of in vitro results to what occurs in humans rather than what occurs in rodents and other test animals.”

Read more: http://altweb.jhsph.edu/news/2012/US_EU_collab_tox_tools.html