Issue Type: Biomedical Research

Humane Society International / Global

unoL/iStock.com

SEOUL—The annual statistics on laboratory animal use for 2020 revealed disappointing trends with regards to animal testing in South Korea. According to the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, 4,141,433 animals were used for testing in 2020, up 11.5% compared to the previous year (3,712,380 in 2019). This figure is a 43.8% increase compared to five years ago, when 2,878,907 animals were subjected to testing.

Meanwhile, this week, the Ministry of Justice proposed an amendment to the Civil Law, adding a new clause on the legal status of animals stipulating that animals are not objects. While Humane Society International/Korea welcomes this proposal, the latest animal testing statistics illustrate how much there is still to do at a government level to reduce the use of animals in experiments through effective replacement and reduction policies.

The greatest share of animal experiments were conducted under the regulatory testing category, recording 1,795,709 animals used. In addition, 299,344 animals were used for efficacy testing. This is a 900% increase compared to 2019 when 29,876 animals were used. For industrial chemical testing, there was a 43% decrease in 2020, recording 29,810 animals. HSI/Korea actively defended amendments to prioritize alternative methods in the Korea chemical registration law, K-REACH, which came into effect in 2019.

While Korea is embracing technological advances in every aspect of society, when it comes to research and testing, outdated approaches using animals are favored despite the rapid emergence of innovative, non-animal approaches, including internationally validated methods for regulatory testing. In recent years, human mimetic models like organ-on-a-chip, organoids and computer-based approaches such as in silico have proven to be successful alternatives to animal models and have received attention from global pharmaceutical industries and regulators. These technologies have the potential to improve safety and efficacy assessments and reduce the failure rates of candidate drugs at the clinical stage.

However, running against these global trends, in 2020 the Ministry of Education secured 150 billion Korean Won to build new animal testing centers at nine national universities across South Korea. HSI/Korea has called for this funding to be redirected toward creation of alternative method infrastructures instead. The Ministry of Education denied HSI/Korea’s proposal.

According to the Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology’s response to the enquiry on the 2021 budget information for animal experiments and alternatives, 28.6% of the ministry’s budget is dedicated to funding and supplying animal models. This budget enquiry was requested by Member of National Assembly, Ik-pyo Hong, at the Science, Information and Communications Technology Committee. Only 1.36% of the budget was allocated for the development of state-of-the-art human-based technology instead of animal models.

Assembly member Ik-pyo Hong said: “The 2020 statistics show how little attention has been paid to advance research technologies without involving animal suffering. The objective of developing methods that emulate human physiology, is to find more accurate and effective ways for treating human diseases and conditions. In addition, it is our responsibility as a society to adopt more compassionate approaches for animals. I believe we can do more to support this modern science and move away from animal testing. Ultimately, it is better for humans and animals.”

Borami Seo, senior policy manager for HSI/Korea said: “While public interest in animal protection gathers unstoppable momentum, over 10,000 animals died every day in 2020 in Korean laboratories. The science community and central ministries need to move away from the outdated and unscientific notion that more animal experiments are better. We need to bring public and private stakeholders together around a consensus strategy to develop, disseminate and apply non-animal, cutting-edge technologies.”

Last December, Assembly member In-soon Nam introduced a new bill entitled ‘Act on the Promotion of Development, Dissemination and Use of Alternatives to Animal Testing Methods.’ It aims to bring central government ministries, research and testing stakeholders together for strategic planning to advance scientific research without animal testing. The bill is currently awaiting its review at the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee.

Read the official 2020 lab animal statistics in Korean

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Media Contact: Borami Seo: bseo@hsi.org

Remembering our beloved friend Joseph Thomas on World Chimpanzee Day

Humane Society International

Richard Ssuna, HSI Fanta and her baby, pictured here, are two of the more than 60 chimpanzees living the peaceful retirement they deserve at Humane Society International’s Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge Liberia. In March 2015, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International stepped in to take over the care of this former biomedical research colony used in invasive medical experiments by a US based organization. Prior to this, the chimpanzees were left on six estuary islands without funding or infrastructure in place for their long-term care. The HSUS and HSI have since made significant improvements to the care of the chimpanzees, including daily feedings and strengthened birth control measures, as they continue to work to create a high-quality sanctuary for the chimps.

LIBERIA—Animal protection charity Humane Society International, and its sanctuary Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge Liberia, are celebrating World Chimpanzee Day with a moving tribute to colleague Joseph Thomas who died in January this year after more than 40 years of dedicated care for over 60 retired chimpanzees in Liberia who were formerly used in invasive biomedical research. SCCRL and HSI are now embarking on an exciting new phase of sanctuary development with architectural and construction plans to build a veterinary clinic and new facilities on the chimpanzees’ island homes.

Joseph first met the chimps in 1979 when he began work at the research facility where they were being used in experiments. When civil war broke out in Liberia, and then years later Ebola devastated the country, Joseph and other local workers stayed behind at the facility and risked their own lives to care for the chimps. In the mid-2000s Joseph helped to relocate the chimpanzees to six estuary islands in the Farmington and Little Bassa rivers in western-central Liberia as research on them was being phased out. In 2015, when the research company’s funding for the animals came to an end, it was Joseph who signaled an international plea for help while he did his best to gather local resources to continue feeding the chimpanzees. His plea reached the attention of Humane Society International who stepped in to provide initial emergency funding to save the chimps. HSI has since committed to their lifetime care.

Dr. Richard Ssuna, veterinarian for Second Chance at Humane Society International, says: “These chimpanzees cannot fend for themselves because originally they were taken from the wild as babies or bred in captivity, and the islands do not have sufficient natural food sources. If Joseph and his team had not stayed behind during the civil war to feed them with whatever fruits and vegetables they could source in local markets, these animals would have starved to death. Joseph had a remarkable bond with the chimps, he knew every single one of them by name and personality. They trusted him enormously, and throughout all the years of conflict and turmoil they endured, Joseph was their one constant. His passing leaves a huge hole in our hearts and in our team, but we are determined to make Joseph proud and continue his amazing legacy.”

HSI’s team of 30 staff in Liberia provide around the clock care for the chimpanzees including preparing and feeding a nutritious diet twice a day, providing security around the chimps’ island homes, and administering high quality veterinary care and birth control programs.

HSI is now also embarking on an exciting new phase of sanctuary development, with architectural and construction plans to build a veterinary clinic and new facilities on the chimpanzees’ island homes. HSI’s new infrastructure project has now been granted the government permission it needs to go ahead, marking a new chapter for the sanctuary and the major, multi-year undertaking of temporarily relocating the chimps while construction takes place on the islands.

Amanda Gray, Second Chance program manager at Humane Society International, says: “Second Chance provides a near wild existence in mangrove forests where the chimps can roam freely, live together in social groups, and even make treetop nests at night. Some chimps like Samantha, Jiminy Cricket and Brutus are more than 40 years old, so they’ve been through a lot. But they’ve all been transformed from the malnourished, desperate chimps we first met to healthy, happy, thriving animals. We are committed to providing them with lifelong care, which could be another 60 years, so our project to build new facilities on the islands will ensure they get the best of care into the future.”

The legacy of Joseph Thomas’s love for the chimpanzees also lives on in HSI’s community education work in Liberia. HSI runs humane education programs in 25 communities and 12 schools to promote kindness and respect for animals and the environment. HSI’s Dr. Ssuna also provides regular free veterinary care and vaccinations for community dogs and cats, and the charity funds community initiatives such as repairing the local road, providing sanitation equipment to help COVID-19 prevention, as well as recruiting staff and procuring food locally for the sanctuary.

​Gray concludes: “We are deeply indebted to Joseph for his tireless commitment to the chimpanzees for over 41 years and for the sacrifices he made to ensure their safety. It is truly because of his heroic dedication and devotion that the chimps in our care are alive today. The chimpanzees and his fellow teammates at Second Chance were like family to Joseph, and he was family to us.”

Please visit hsi.org to learn more about the chimpanzees and to support our work to help them and to help animals around the world.

Download Photos and Video of Joseph Thomas and the Chimpanzees

Watch the Tribute to Joseph Thomas

Learn More About Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge Liberia

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Media contact: Wendy Higgins: whiggins@hsi.org

International experts to discuss ‘3D Tissue Chip and Micro-physiological Systems: from development to regulatory adaptation’

Humane Society International

Andrei Tchernov/iStockphoto 

SEOUL—Cutting-edge advances in 3D organ-chip technologies will be discussed at an online symposium hosted by Humane Society International/Korea and 3D-MOTIVE project group. Titled ‘3D Tissue Chip and Micro-physiological Systems: from development to regulatory adaptation’, the virtual R&D and business strategy symposium takes place on 5 March.

The symposium will explore current scientific and research funding initiatives to advance non-animal predictive models for medical research and testing using human organ-chip micro-physiological systems. It will also explore the vision for strategic cooperation from developers to end-users to implement and utilise advanced human-based technologies instead of animals for pre-clinical testing.

Professor of nephrology at Seoul National University Hospital, Sejoong Kim, who leads the 3D-MOTIVE project, said “There is an increasing interest in developing new drug development platforms using multi-organ tissue chips. To get these newly developed methods approved by regulatory authorities to replace animal testing, close collaboration with related stakeholders is important. This symposium will provide the opportunity to share international efforts and to discuss strategic plans for Korea.”

Borami Seo, HSI/Korea’s interim executive director and senior policy manager for research and toxicology, said “For effective approaches for new drug discovery, science is increasingly moving away from animal models and applying human-relevant technologies. In December 2020, we saw the introduction of a relevant legislative proposal, the Act on the Promotion of Development, Dissemination and Use of Alternatives to Animal Testing Methods. If passed, this measure will provide a legal framework to support collaborative efforts across central authorities and provide support for long-term funding shifts toward non-animal approaches. I hope that our symposium will accelerate much-needed discussion on regulatory acceptance of cutting-edge technologies to replace animal testing methods”.

Agenda:

  • Chair by Sejoong Kim and Young-Jae Cho, professor at Seoul National University Hospital
    • Organ-Chip technology and regulatory progress
  • Dr Kyung Jin Jang, VP of Technology Implementation and Field Science, Emulate, US
    • Micro-physiological systems—from scientific models towards industry adoption and regulatory acceptance of qualified assays
  • Prof Uwe Marx, CSO & Founder, TissUse, Germany
    • US interagency organ-on-a-chip (OOC) development program: from funding to qualification for regulatory acceptance
  • Dr Suzanne Fitzpatrick, FDA, U.S.
    • Global standardization process for tissue chip techniques
  • Dr Sun-Ju Ahn, Institute of Quantum Biophysics, Sungkunkwan University, Korea
    • Introduction to the Act on the Promotion of Development, Distribution and Use of Alternatives to Animal Testing Methods
  • Borami Seo, Interim Executive Director/Senior Policy Manager for HSI/Korea
    • Industry’s role for OOC development and regulatory applications
  • Dr Adrian Roth, Roche, Switzerland

Register for the online symposium and learn more.

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Media contact: Borami Seo: bseo@hsi.org

Korea’s state-of-the-art alternatives science is being overlooked

Humane Society International

Jacob Studio/iStock.com 

SEOUL (July 30)—With South Korea’s National Assembly set to review a bill to promote non-animal research methods later this year, a new opinion poll reveals that the majority of the Korean public want to see their tax money spent on supporting these advanced approaches instead of animal testing. Almost 82% of respondents want to see the 21st National Assembly session demonstrate legislative support for alternatives to animal testing, which includes approaches such as human organ-mimics and tests using human-derived cells instead of experiments on mice, monkeys and dogs.

The nationwide opinion poll conducted by independent polling company Realmeter, and commissioned by Humane Society International/Korea, comes just a month after official statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs revealed a total of 3,712,380 animals used for testing in 2019. The statistics showed an alarming 187% increase in animal use for testing insecticides, a 115% increase in the number of animals used to test industrial chemicals, a 77.8% increase in animal experiments in education and training, a 40% increase in pharmaceutical quality control animal testing, and a 9.7% increase in animal experiments in the most severe pain category.

South Korea’s high level of animal use persists despite efforts by many Korean scientists to rapidly develop human-relevant methods. Unfortunately, even internationally recognised non-animal methods are not well promoted by government or industry. The majority of laboratories in South Korea certified as “Good Laboratory Practice” by the Ministry of Environment still use animals even where internationally recognized alternatives are readily available, and few of Korea’s contract testing facilities even offer non-animal test options.

Borami Seo, Humane Society International/Korea’s senior policy manager for research and toxicology, said, “South Korea’s scientists are at the forefront of efforts to develop superior non-animal methods to better understand and treat human disease faster and more effectively. And yet without a legal framework to promote the use of these methods, they are all too often being ignored. Among other achievements, South Korean companies have developed a human cornea model to replace animal testing for eye irritation that has been accepted as an official test method by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; are incorporating gene editing technology into human cell-based models for drug screening for Wilson’s disease; and are establishing human organ-mimetic models to develop next-generation 3-D cell technology for drug development. Yet despite all this innovation, Korea’s regulatory framework is still biased towards the old ways of animal testing, which isn’t benefiting animal welfare or human health. That has to change.”

Summary of poll results

  • 83.4% agree that the Korean government should increase funding to support animal testing replacement;
  • 81.3% want to see their tax money spent to support studying non-animal methods using human organ mimetic approaches or human-derived cells;
  • 83.8% support increased cross-ministerial collaboration to expand research fund for alternatives to animal testing;
  • 81.6% support anticipated legislation to promote alternative research instead of animal testing during this new 21st session of National Assembly;
  • 66% agree that testing that inflicts pain on animals needs to improve to avoid animal suffering;
  • 76.9% were not aware of alternatives to animal testing being available that are more predictive and modern than using animals.

South Korea’s failure to embrace the full potential of non-animal methods stands in stark contrast with countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States, where there is a concerted effort to eliminate the use of animals to test chemicals, pesticides and other products. In January 2017, the Dutch government announced plans to phase out animal use for chemical safety testing by 2025, and is on track to achieve this goal. Belgium’s Brussels-Capital Region banned animal testing on cats, dogs and primates effective January 2020, and by January 2025 it will also ban animal use in education and safety testing unless deemed absolutely necessary. And in September 2019, the US Environmental Protection Agency made a commitment to reduce mammalian testing requirements by 30% by 2025 and to completely eliminate them by 2035.

Last month, HSI and Assembly member In-soon Nam co-hosted an Assembly forum to discuss legislation to promote non-animal research techniques in safety and biomedical sciences, ‘the Act on the Promotion of Development, Distribution and Use of Alternatives to Animal Testing Methods’. Participants from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Institute of Toxicology, the Korean Society for Alternative to Animal Experiments, Dana Green Bio, as well as legal experts from the National Assembly’s Legislative office, the Korea Legislation Research Institute and the Korean lawyers’ group People for Non-Human Rights, agreed on the need for a new research regulatory framework in Korea.

HSI/Korea’s Borami Seo said, “The future of scientific research lies in state-of-the-art, non-animal approaches like human organoids, organs-on-chips and next-generation computing and AI, not in poisoning, dissecting or genetically modifying mice, monkeys and other animals. This new opinion poll clearly shows that the vast majority of Koreans agree that the government should be taking serious action to advance the use of non-animal approaches. It’s time Korea followed the example of the United States, the Netherlands and other innovation economies that have made a serious investment in non-animal technologies. It’s been six decades since the concept of non-animal testing was introduced to the scientific community and yet animal use in Korean laboratories remains unacceptably high. We urge our government to become a global leader in non-animal science not only to protect animals from suffering, but also to accelerate more effective and predictive product safety and medical research for the benefit of the public.”

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Media contact: Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org

Notes:

The nationwide poll of 1,000 respondents age 19 and older was conducted in June 2020 using an automated telephone survey method. Margin of error is ±3.1% with the 95% prediction interval.

Humane Society International/India lauds Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission on landmark decision to abandon obsolete animal test

Humane Society International / India

Andrei Tchernov/iStockphoto

NEW DELHI—A controversial and obsolete animal test for batch testing human vaccines has been abolished by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission in what is being hailed by Humane Society International/India as a landmark decision. Deletion of the Abnormal Toxicity Test from the Indian Pharmacopoeia will spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals nationwide every year. The decision was announced following the draft notification published for public consultation in May. HSI/India, a member of the IPC’s Expert Committee has been in dialogue with the IPC, vaccine manufacturers and scientists to remove ATT which is in accordance with the World Health Organisation guidelines which deleted the test in November 2018.

Alokparna Sengupta,  managing director of HSI/India, said: “This is a landmark decision by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the IPC, and represents a progressive stride in joining some of the most scientifically advanced countries in the world that have also deleted the obsolete Abnormal Toxicity Test. This is the first vital step towards consigning animal testing for vaccines to the history books, and we hope that an equally forward-thinking vision will be applied to similarly obsolete animal tests for veterinary vaccines too.

“As a global player of ever-growing significance in worldwide vaccine manufacturing, India needs to be at the forefront of innovation and compliance with the highest international standards. As well as being inhumane, animal tests are increasingly recognized to be poor at replicating results in human, prone to excessive variability, and highly costly.”

The ATT was originally developed in the 1950s to detect external contaminants in vaccines and has remained the de facto gold standard despite mounting scientific evidence questioning its reliability and value. The introduction of “good manufacturing practices” and the use of stringent quality control measures, now mean that omission the test does not compromise the safety of the products. The IPC has previously granted waivers on the ATT for companies able to demonstrate good manufacturing practices and adequate consistency of production, but now the test will be completely deleted.

With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Humane Society International is working across the globe with vaccine safety authorities, industry and stakeholders in an effort to eliminate or replace redundant animal testing from regulations for human and veterinary products. HSI has facilitated extensive stakeholder engagement in India to help bring about this monumental step sparing countless animal lives while ensuring vaccine safety and availability.

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Media Contact: Shambhavi Tiwari, stiwari@hsi.org, +918879834125

Humane Society International

Jacob Studio/iStock.com

SEOUL—Proposed new legislation that would require Korean regulatory and research funding ministries to promote the development and implementation of non-animal alternatives in safety and biomedical sciences will be examined at a National Assembly expert forum on June 30. Assembly member In-soon Nam and Humane Society International/Korea will co-host the forum.

The legislative initiative follows the release of government statistics revealing a shocking spike in the number of animals subjected to painful chemical-poisoning and other experiments in 2019, including forced feeding, inhalation, eye and skin tests without pain relief to assess the toxicity of insecticides (+187%), industrial chemicals (+115%) and pharmaceuticals (+40%).

Assembly member Nam said: “I believe this is a timely subject for discussion. We are living in the 21st century now, so it is only appropriate to discuss a new legal framework that will advance the current science policy for human patients and laboratory animals. As a member of the Health and Welfare committee, I am pleased to support this initiative and invite other science stakeholders to join in the discussion.”

Borami Seo, HSI/Korea senior policy manager for research and toxicology, said: “The proposed legislation provides the legal ground for the government ministries to fund the development of advanced and scientifically superior human-mimetic tools for testing and disease research, or to accept the findings from these proven non-animal methods. Time and again we’ve found that the only way to get some ministries to change their behaviour is by changing the law. It’s been six decades since the concept of animal testing alternatives was introduced to the scientific community and yet animal use in Korean laboratories remains at an all-time high. Our systems of research funding and experimental regulation are in urgent need of reform.”

The forum, chaired by Prof Kyung-min Lim from EWHA Women’s University, will feature presentations from the Korea Legislation Research Institute, the Korea Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods and HSI/Korea. The panelists include officials from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea Institute of Toxicology president Chang-woo Song, Dana Green Bio CEO Ki-woo Kim, National Assembly legislative officer Jung-cheol Goh, Korean Society for Alternative to Animal Experiments vice president Gwang-man Kim, and People for Non-Human Rights lawyer Coochwa Suh.

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Time:   1400 KST

Place:   National Assembly

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, only pre-registered guests will be admitted to the Assembly building to join the forum.

Last year HSI organized Korea’s first cross-ministerial forum to explore legislation to boost government funding for human-specific, non-animal approaches for testing as an alternative to experiments on mice, rats, dogs and monkeys that too often fail to predict human disease outcomes in the real world. After this forum, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety carried out a review of the proposed legislation, which led to a series of stakeholder meetings and a revised legislative proposal.

Leading companies and academic research groups across the globe are harnessing the power of non-animal human-relevant models to study and develop treatments for diseases ranging from cancer to COVID-19:

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Media contact: Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org

Humane Society International and its partner organisations together constitute one of the world’s largest animal protection organisations. For more than 25 years, HSI has been working for the protection of all animals through the use of science, advocacy, education and hands on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide – on the Web at hsi.org and biomed21.org.

Humane Society International / United States

dra_schwartz/istockphoto

WASHINGTON—Humane Society International and the Humane Society of United States have supported a fast-track research grant for non-animal approaches to investigate mechanisms, medicines and vaccines for the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The organizations believe that understanding the biological mechanisms that make humans especially susceptible to COVID-19 is urgently needed to inform the development and evaluation of effective countermeasures.

Laboratory investigations of human disease often attempt to artificially reproduce a condition in animals. Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, a flood of studies have described infecting mice, hamsters, ferrets, monkeys and other animals with COVID-19. Yet most report that the animals used were either immune to the new virus, or manifested symptoms that differ substantially from the human condition, including in the most severe clinical outcomes. In addition, the animal-based approach is limited in its ability to predict the impact of comorbidities— the presence of two chronic diseases—in COVID-19 patients, or how the various treatments could impact or worsen the infection.

“We have great faith in the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing as a source of funding for research with the potential to spare humans, as well as animals in laboratories, from suffering caused by COVID-19,” says Kitty Block, president and CEO of HSUS and CEO of HSI.

The two organizations’ donation of $20,000 to the CAAT grant program aims to stimulate innovative and inherently human-relevant solutions for COVID-19. Models based on human biology—from cell and tissue cultures to complex organoids, organs-on-a-chip and computational tools—can help scientists understand the mechanisms of disease progression and rapidly identify interventions that are effective and safe in a human biological environment.

The groups previously released a multi-pronged policy plan for preventing another global health crisis like COVID-19.

– 30 –

Media contacts:

  • HSUS: Emily Ehrhorn, Senior Specialist of Media Relations, eehrhorn@humanesociety.org, 301.258.1423
  • JHU: Michael Hughes, CATT communications manager, mhughe18@jhu.edu, 410.614.4920

Humane Society International and its partner organisations together constitute one of the world’s largest animal protection organisations. For more than 25 years, HSI has been working for the protection of all animals through the use of science, advocacy, education and hands on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide – on the Web at hsi.org. 

Founded in 1954, the Humane Society of the United States and its affiliates around the globe fight the big fights to end suffering for all animals. Together with millions of supporters, the HSUS takes on puppy mills, factory farms, trophy hunts, animal testing and other cruel industries, and together with its affiliates, rescues and provides direct care for over 100,000 animals every year. The HSUS works on reforming corporate policy, improving and enforcing laws and elevating public awareness on animal issues. More at humanesociety.org.    

Subscribe to Kitty Block’s blog, A Humane World. Follow the HSUS Media Relations department on Twitter. Read the award-winning All Animals magazine. Listen to the Humane Voices Podcast.  

The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, founded in 1981, is part of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a European branch located at the University of Kostanz, Germany.

CAAT promotes humane science by supporting the creation, development, validation and use of alternatives to animals in research, product safety testing, and education. The center seeks to effect change by working with scientists in industry, government, and academia to find new ways to replace animals with non-animal methods, reduce the numbers of animals necessary, or refine methods to make them less painful or stressful to the animals involved.

Humane Society International

GlobalP/istockphoto.com

SEOUL—On this World Day for Animals in Laboratories, following chilling evidence of the suffering of cats in Korean laboratories, Humane Society International and the Korean Society for Alternative to Animal Experiments wish to acknowledge the pioneering scientists and institutions working to replace animal testing, and urge government ministries to increase their funding support for innovation and medical progress without animals.

HSI’s Senior Policy Manager Borami Seo said, “Across South Korea, scientists are striving to develop and use state-of-the-art approaches for research, instead of opting for outdated animal testing methods. Yet as we’ve seen again this week, many researchers are still stuck in the past, subjecting cats, dogs, pigs and millions of other animals to harmful experiments each year, often paid for with public tax money. It’s time to change the paradigm, and for our government to move away from funding animal research and instead reward our dedicated innovators who are advancing humane science.”

KSAAE President Dr Tae Cheon Jeong said, “As an academic society, we will try our best to provide expert support for researchers who want to move away from animal testing. We highly commend current endeavors and will continue to work together in advancing non-animal technology.”

Korean scientists are rapidly developing human-relevant methods to help understand human disease and identify faster and more effective approaches than relying on animal models. Seoul-based stem cell technology company Nexel recently published its research on Wilson’s disease, incorporating gene editing technology into human cell-based models for drug screening. This is a welcome development as millions of animals are used in gene editing experiments, with millions more animals used for creating and maintaining strains of genetically modified animals. Another Korean bio start-up company, Dana Green, is focusing on establishing human organ-mimetic models using 3D cell technology, aiming to develop next-generation technology that shows higher, more human-relevant prediction rates for drug development.

Korea Institute of Toxicology’s predictive toxicology department recently introduced ToxSTAR, a platform that allows high-speed chemical screening to predict toxicity. Another company, Biosolution, developed a human cornea model that can replace animal testing for various eye conditions, and has since been accepted as an official test method by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, despite rigorous validation and international recognition, this method is not yet widely used in Korea due to a lack of support from the government and industry to promote the method.

Similarly, the majority of laboratories certified as Good Laboratory Practice by the Ministry of Environment still use animals even though internationally recognized alternatives are readily available. According to chemnavi.or.kr, only four of 19 registered Korean contract testing facilities are currently providing alternative test services; Biotoxtech, AB Solution, ChemOn and Korea Testing & Research Institute. Of these, only KTR’s Alternative Testing Center is named as a GLP-certified service offering non-animal, human-based tests. Ellead Skin & Bio Research is certified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for offering human reconstructed skin irritation tests. An industry source said that the company was not aware of any local testing facilities that provide non-animal test services until the HSI-driven amendment to Korea’s chemical law, K-REACH, was enacted. The law requires the Ministry of Environment and companies to minimize the use of vertebrate animals in the process of producing hazard information for chemicals, including prioritizing vertebrate animal alternative tests and sharing of existing chemical test data.

HSI is working with members of the National Assembly on further legal reforms that would require federal ministries that fund biology research to meaningfully fund the development of human-mimetic, non-animal models to replace animal testing in Korea as a mainstream activity.

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Media contact: Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org

Humane Society International / Japan

Andrei Tchernov/iStockphoto

TOKYO—Marking the 60th anniversary of the ‘3Rs’ principle of replacement, reduction and refinement of animals in science, the Japanese Coalition for Animal Welfare and Humane Society International have launched a new report, “Reconsidering the Future of Animal Experimentation,” featuring articles by experts on this issue, such as researchers on non-animal alternatives and lab animal scientists.

JCAW and HSI have been collaborating to engage regulatory authorities and policymakers for the revision of Japan’s Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which just passed this year. The revised AWA includes a supplementary provision that states that stakeholders will continue discussions on and review lab animal related issues. The two organizations will continue to work together to engage stakeholders and raise public awareness beyond this revision.

The report includes a comprehensive review of regulations and policies around the world, including the United States and Europe, that promote and mandate the use of non-animal alternatives. Common themes among these public policy initiatives include the concept of mandatory alternatives (entrenching the 3Rs in law), prohibition of animal use generally regarded as scientifically unnecessary (e.g., animal testing for cosmetics), and metrics and timetables for achieving replacement or reduction of animal use.

JCAW representative Dr. Koichi Aoki said, “This omnibus report provides an overview on the global regulatory situation and the current position and situation of various stakeholders associated with animal testing and animals used in research. The revision of the AWA left a clause in the supplementary provision that states that the review and discussion on lab animal issues shall be continued. Thus, we hope that this omnibus report, which provides an insight into the current situation from various perspectives, would serve as a catalyst for a healthy dialogue in which all stakeholders of the issue could actively participate.”

Troy Seidle, vice president HSI’s Research & Toxicology Department, said, “Many countries around the world have regulations on animal testing or for advancing the uptake of state-of-the-art non-animal science and technology, and we are hoping that the omnibus report will provide Japanese stakeholders with the most recent information on such trends. One such example of the regulatory process would be the changes in the cosmetics sector. Already 39 major economies have enacted laws prohibiting or restricting cosmetic animal testing and/or trade. Similar bills are under discussion in various countries, including the United States and Canada. Regulatory changes in the cosmetics sector have served as an incentive for transitioning to human biology based non-animal methods worldwide. We hope that the Japanese stakeholders will put this report to good use in future discussions based on the supplementary provisions in the revised AWA.”

JCAW and HSI are planning to directly present the omnibus report to various stakeholders, but the report can be downloaded free of charge here (report available only in Japanese).

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Media Contacts:

HSI (Japan): Sakiko Yamazaki, syamazaki@hsi.org (interview in both Japanese and English)

JCAW: Koichi Aoki, info@dokyoren.com

Humane Society International and its partners together constitute one of the world’s largest animal protection organizations. For more than 25 years, HSI has been working for the protection of all animals using science, advocacy, education and hands on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide – on the Web at hsi.org

The Japanese Coalition for Animal Welfare is a coalition of organizations, corporations, and individuals who support “the creation of a harmonious way of life for both people and animals” and engages in activities to educate the public on the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals and to work toward improving the abovementioned law through lobbying activities targeting competent authorities, local authorities, and Diet Members. Visit us at https://www.dokyoren.com/ (homepage only available in Japanese)

 

3.52 million mice, dogs, monkeys, rabbits suffered and died in UK labs in 2018

Humane Society International / United Kingdom

Andrei Tchernov/iStockphoto

LONDON—Home Office statistics published today[1] reveal a shockingly high number of dogs, mice, cats, rabbits and other animals are still suffering in invasive, painful and sometimes lethal experiments in British laboratories despite unprecedented availability of high-tech and often more human-predictive non-animal approaches.

The Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2018 show that a total of 3.52 million procedures were completed in the UK in 2018, including tests on mice (1.1 million), rats (170,665), birds (146,860), rabbits (11,159), guinea pigs (6,445), monkeys (3,207), dogs (4, 481), cats (159), horses (10,424) and fish (300,811). A total of 87,557 animals were subjected to severe suffering, the highest category allowed under the law.

Humane Society International Senior Scientist Dr Lindsay Marshall, who for 12 years managed a laboratory dedicated to animal-free research into respiratory diseases, said: “As a scientist myself, I know all too well the drawbacks of relying on animals to study and treat human disease. The fact is that animal models fail far more often than they succeed, so it’s hugely frustrating and worrying to see the UK, year after year, failing to move away from outdated animal experiments. It’s high time UK research funding bodies stopped squandering British taxpayer money and charitable donations on dead-end research, and made a serious investment in human organoids, organs-on-a-chip, computerised systems biology models, and other advanced, non-animal technologies that are the true future of modern medical research.” 

The government made a commitment in 2010 to reduce animals used in scientific research, but almost 10 years after this declaration of intent[2], the UK remains one of the highest lab animal users in Europe. In those same years, non-animal technologies that can produce faster, cheaper and more human-relevant results, have advanced enormously:

  • Computers are much better than animals at predicting possible toxic effects of chemicals and drugs[3].
  • The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells has helped to remove the ethical barriers to stem cell use[4].
  • Scientists have created human-mimetic systems of almost every organ in the body. There is a human-on-a-chip for drug testing[5], a patient-on-a-chip is not far away[6] and chips have travelled to space to investigate the impact of ageing on the human body[7].

Dr Marshall is not alone in her opinion. A raft of academic reviews from expert scientists in a range of fields reach the same conclusion for conditions as diverse as autism, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease[8] and they call for more investment in human-relevant methods.

Dr Marshall continues: “Despite staggering advances in scientific technology, medical research in Britain remains irrationally wedded to broken animal models. If our government is truly committed to advancing medical progress for its citizens, and to reducing the use of animals in laboratories, significant funding must be redirected from animals to human-mimetic approaches, rather than the paltry 3% of the UK annual research spend that non-animal methods receive at present.”

The recent closure of two mouse breeding facilities[9] illustrates the growing recognition within the scientific community that a paradigm shift away from animal use is essential for medical progress. Recognition that fewer animals are required due to a “rise in the use of alternative technologies”[10] is a step in the right direction, yet the Home Office animal use statistics indicate that there is much more work required to reduce the body count.

Facts:

  • Despite the ever-increasing growth in animal procedures, there is no corresponding increase in the number of human medicines making it to the clinic. In recent years, both the European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration approved fewer new drugs than they had been approving earlier in the decade.
  • Most animal models are poor predictors of human response, with over 90% of new candidate drugs never making it to patients. That’s because pharmaceutical compounds that appear ‘safe’ and ‘effective’ in animal trials fail to deliver the same result when given to people; 55% do not effectively treat the condition for which they are intended, and almost 30% show signs of toxicity that were not seen in animal tests[11].
  • Advances in gene sequencing and phenotypic analysis in humans is ushering in the era of precision medicine, and focused funding and efforts on human-relevant technologies like these are more likely to provide disease understanding and much-needed new treatments.
  • Nearly 560,000 experiments in 2018 were deemed to have caused moderate or severe suffering to animals. Moderate suffering is described by the Home Office as causing short term moderate pain or distress to animals while severe suffering causes long-lasting extreme pain or distress.

ENDS

Contact: Dr Lindsay Marshall, 07719 531 675, lmarshall@hsi.org

Notes to editors:

  1. 2018 Home Office statistics: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/818578/annual-statistics-scientific-procedures-living-animals-2018.pdf
  2. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110718/wmstext/110718m0001.htm
  3. Passini, et al. 2017 Human In Silico Drug Trials Demonstrate Higher Accuracy than Animal Models in Predicting Clinical Pro-Arrhythmic Cardiotoxicity. Front Physiol.8:668.
    Luechtefeld et al. 2018 Machine learning of toxicological big data enables read-across structure activity relationships (RASAR) outperforming animal test reproducibility. Toxicological Sciences. 165 1, 1 September 2018: 198-212
  4. https://www.eurostemcell.org/ips-cells-and-reprogramming-turn-any-cell-body-stem-cell
  5. https://hesperosinc.com
  6. Edington et al. (2018) Interconnected Microphysiological Systems for Quantitative Biology and Pharmacology Studies. Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 14;8(1):4530. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22749-0
  7. https://ncats.nih.gov/tissuechip/projects/space
  8. Savoji, et al. 2018 Cardiovascular Disease Models: A Game Changing Paradigm in Drug Discovery and Screening. Biomaterials. 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.09.036
    Boeckmans et al. 2018. Human-based systems: Mechanistic NASH modelling just around the corner? Pharmacol Res. 134:257-267. 10.1016/j.phrs.2018.06.029
    Muotri, A. R. 2016. The Human Model: Changing Focus on Autism Research. Biol Psychiatry. 79;8:  642-9.
    Bowman, et al. 2018. Future Roadmaps for Precision Medicine Applied to Diabetes: Rising to the Challenge of Heterogeneity. Journal of Diabetes Research. 10.1155/2018/3061620
    Clerc, et al. 2016. A look into the future of ALS research. Drug Discov Today. 21;6: 939-49
  9. https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news/view/sanger-institute-animal-research-facility-close
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02002-y
  10. https://chemicalwatch.com/77872/sanger-institute-announces-closure-of-animal-research-facility
  11. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/iccvam/meetings/iccvam-forum-2019/06-lee-ncats_508.pdf

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