Alternatives
Industry and regulatory bodies responsible for public health are actively assessing animal free tests to reduce the requirement for Draize testing. Before 2009 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had not validated any alternative methods for testing eye or skin irritation potential. However, since 2000 OECD had validated alternative tests for corrosivity, meaning acids, bases and other corrosive substances are no longer required to be Draize tested on animals. The alternative tests include a human skin equivalent model and the transepicutaneous resistance test (TER), in addition to the consideration of the chemical properties of the substance alone.
In September 2009 the OECD validated two alternatives to the Draize Eye Test: the Bovine Cornea Opacity Test (BCOP) and Isolated chicken eye test (ICE). A 1995 study funded by the European Commission and British Home Office evaluated these among nine potential replacements, including the hens egg chorioallantoic membrane (HET-CAM) assay and an epithelial model cultivated from human corneal cells, in comparison with Draize test data. The study found that none of the alternative tests, taken alone, proved to be a reliable replacement for the animal test, however a post hoc analysis of the data found that in certain combinations of tests, an "excellent performance" was observed.
Positive results from some of these tests have been accepted by regulatory bodies, such as the British Health and Safety Executive and US Department of Health and Human Services, without testing on live animals, but negative results (no irritation) required further in vivo testing. Regulatory bodies have therefore begun to adopt a tiered testing strategy for skin and eye irritation, using alternatives to reduce Draize testing of substances with the most severe effects.
Read more about this topic: Draize Test
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