26 October 2007
COLIPA funds non-animal research in skin sensitisation
2.5 million euros to develop an in vitro skin allergy assay are on offer from the European trade association for cosmetics, toiletries and perfumes (COLIPA).
COLIPA wants to fund research to understand the cell-level mechanisms by which chemicals induce skin sensitisation in humans, and it hopes this will lead to the development of a cell assay to predict chemical allergens. Research proposals are being invited now by COLIPA, with a deadline of 15 January 2008. See www.colipa.com for further details.
Research to replace animal tests has been supported by COLIPA since 1992. However, recent legislative developments have provided extra impetus to these efforts. The seventh amendment to the Cosmetics Directive 2003/15/EC introduced a ban, due to be implemented in 2009, on all animal testing for cosmetics throughout the European Union (EU). According to the European Commission’s latest figures, in 2004 three EU member states used a total 8,988 animals for testing cosmetics ingredients. Of these, 2,157 were used in skin sensitisation assays.
The new REACH legislation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) has also had an impact on the search for quicker, cheaper, non-animal testing methods. REACH now places the onus on industry to show that novel chemicals are safe, and it also requires safety assessments of a ‘backlog’ of some 30,000 insufficiently tested chemicals introduced many years ago. The logistics and expense of undertaking such a testing programme on animals is prompting more research to find higher-throughput, non-animal test methods.