A Shared Commitment to Alternative Testing Methods
The cosmetics industry is committed to replacing animal tests as soon as scientifically possible.
The Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (AAT) research programme is a Colipa initiative that supports the development, validation and acceptance of alternative approaches. This work is designed to replace animal use for safety evaluation of human health effects in the context of the safety evaluation of cosmetics.
The 7th Amendment of the EU Cosmetics Directive introduces deadlines for the elimination of safety testing on animals for the purpose of the Directive by March 2009 and by 2013 for complex areas.
For more than 20 years the cosmetics industry’s best scientists—and significant funds—have been dedicated to developing alternative approaches. This work has led to big advances in product and ingredient testing. Scientists are working harder than ever today to develop innovative, alternative approaches to testing on animals.
What is an alternative method?
Alternative methods are defined as those achieving one of the “Three Rs”:
- Replacement of animal tests with non-animal approaches
- Refinement of an animal test to reduce or eliminate stress or suffering
- Reduction in the number of animals needed in a test
The cosmetics industry fully supports the 3R objectives. However, the requirements of the Directive’s 7th Amendment mean that replacement of animal tests with non-animal in vitro tests or strategies is the aim.
From a scientific perspective, achieving replacement alternative methods is a huge challenge which the industry is committed to achieving, whilst also maintaining consumer safety as a priority. .
Alternative testing methods must be scientifically validated by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (EVCAM) as reliable and relevant for a specific purpose.
Once validated, a testing method needs to be accepted by EU regulators, as per the Council Regulation on test methods of 30 May 2008 (Council Regulation EC No 440/2008) and applied across all industries that test chemicals for safety purposes.
Cooperating to find effective alternatives
The complete development of replacement alternatives will only be possible through collective action by all relevant stakeholders on a global scale. Indeed, many of the advances in alternative approaches used by the cosmetics industry have been successful due to cooperation with academia and other industries. Such approaches are now also used by sectors such as the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
Colipa and its members are at the forefront of non-animal testing worldwide. Their efforts are coordinated by the Research teams on Alternatives to Animal Testing (AAT).
The work of the AAT programme is based on collaboration – not only between Colipa’s member companies – but also with other groups that have a legitimate interest in the outcome of the research. Colipa therefore collaborates with academia, other industrial trade associations and the German Centre for the documentation and evaluation of Alternatives to Animal Testing (ZEBET).
In order to achieve our aim we also collaborate closely with the industry’s regulators. These are the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS), ECVAM (The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods) and the European Commission. With the Commission we work through the Directorate Generals for Enterprise, Research and Health and Consumers.
On an international level, Colipa works with the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) in the United States, as well as with partners from Canada and Japan, and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). We also promote alternative approaches internationally, for example within the International Cooperation on Cosmetic Regulation (ICCR) and through our contributions to the World Congress on Alternatives.
In November 2005 the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) was formed. This brings together the cosmetics industry, many individual companies, and industry associations from all sectors involved in this type of research.