Animal research

During 2008, we introduced a new global 3Rs award for best practice in the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal use, which will run alongside our established annual scientific and technical achievement awards. 3Rs initiatives from across the company are judged by a committee of senior scientists from across AstraZeneca, with input from an external 3Rs expert.  

The 2008 award was made to the scientist who led a European collaborative project, involving 18 pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations, which demonstrated the limited value of   specific single dose acute toxicity studies in pharmaceutical development. The studies were a regulatory required test ahead of first administration of a new medicine to humans.  The project demonstrated that this is not necessary, because the information required to assure human safety can be obtained from other, more refined animal studies. As a result of this work, AstraZeneca has not conducted such studies since 2006 and other companies are also taking up this approach, which has led to a collective 70% reduction in the use of rats and mice for these studies across Europe (approximately 15,000 animals each year). The output of the work is now leading to revision of international regulatory guidelines so that these animal tests will no longer be required.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009