Trend on alternative to animal testing

For the promotion of 3R's (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) principles of animal tests, the EU and US established the European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), respectively. The purpose of these centers is to detect reliability and relevance of alternative methods, which should be determined by intra‐ and inter‐laboratory validation and peer review for their regulatory acceptance. A similar institute was established in Japan, the Japanese Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (JaCVAM) in the National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS). However, there are not enough resources in Japan. It is necessary to cooperate with a Japanese science society like the Japanese Society of Alternatives to Animal Experiments (JSAAE) and a Japanese industry group like the Japanese Cosmetic Industry Association (JCIA). We are expecting JaCVAM to contribute to the validation and peer review of new alternative methods with supporters and international cooperation for the evaluation of the safety of cosmetic ingredients and products.