Brazil's Anvisa to Assess Alternatives to Animal Testing
The Board of Brazil's National Agency for Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa) has instructed the agency to review all regulations that require the submission of data from animal experiments to support marketing applications in order to determine situations where it would be possible to use alternative validated testing methods.
The agency is encouraging the development of alternative methods to animal testing through the Brazilian Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods, which is connected to the National Institute of Quality Control in Health (INCQS-Fiocruz) and the National Network of Alternative Methods (RENEMA).
The Board's instruction to the agency will be the focus of the November 2013 meeting of Anvisa's Scientific Committee, with the goal of achieving the most appropriate way to reconcile the ethical treatment and appropriate use of animals in experiments with the information requirements needed to ensure the effectiveness and safety of regulated products.