ICCVAM Announces the Development of a Strategic Roadmap to Establish New Approaches for Evaluating the Safety of Chemicals and Medical Products

In 2007, the National Research Council published the groundbreaking report “Toxicity Testing in the 21^st Century: A Vision and a Strategy” that called for a transformation from animal-based toxicity testing to a more efficient and predictive non-animal approach.  While many non-animal methods have been developed in the past decade, this has not translated reliably to their use by industry and acceptance by regulators. The Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) is now coordinating the development of a national strategy to increase implementation of non-animal approaches for toxicity testing. ICCVAM envisions federal agencies, the regulated community, non-governmental organizations, and other experts collaboratively exploring new approaches for evaluating the safety of chemicals and medical products in order to guide the development and use of human-based tools to support regulatory and research needs. ICCVAM is requesting public comments on the content of this draft roadmap by August 31, 2017.