Animal research

AstraZeneca is committed to the responsible use of animals.  All our research using animals is carefully considered and justified, not only to confirm that there is a scientific need for a study, but also to ensure that it has been designed so that the minimum number of the most appropriate species are used and that these animals are exposed to as little discomfort and stress as possible.

The 3Rs (the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal studies) are a key aspect of our commitment to the responsible use of animals. Wherever possible, we use non-animal methods such as cell culture, computer modelling and high-throughput screening that eliminate the need to use animals early in drug development, or reduce the number needed. We also work to refine our existing methods and drive continuous improvement across our research activity.

The number of animals we use each year varies according to the amount of pre-clinical research we are doing and the complexity of the diseases under investigation. As we continue to expand our discovery research activity, our ongoing challenge is to ensure that our use of animals is minimised without compromising the quality of the data. We believe that, without our active commitment to the 3Rs, our animal use would be much greater.

IN 2008

We continue to develop our data capture processes to incorporate companies recently acquired by AstraZeneca and our animal numbers for 2008 now include MedImmune, Arrow Therapeutics and Kudos.

In 2008, AstraZeneca used approximately 347,000 animals in-house (2007: 271,000). In addition, approximately 29,000 animals were used by external contract research organisations on our behalf (2007: 13,500).

Around 93% of the animals used in 2008 were rodents, 4% were fish and amphibians and the remaining 3% included chickens, rabbits, dogs, ferrets, primates, pigs and sheep. We also use genetically modified mice and rats to understand better the genes involved in human disease. In 2008, these accounted for approximately 13% of our total rodent use.

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