Groups Fund Non-Animal Methods for Skin Allergy and Cancer Tests
For Immediate Release:
June 21, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Norfolk, Va. — Following two new grants awarded to researchers developing modern, cost-effective alternatives to cruel animal-based testing methods, PETA and its international affiliates have now provided more than $1 million in donations to research laboratories. This funding rivals that of many multibillion-dollar chemical and cosmetics companies that will benefit from these non-animal methods.
"Funding research for non-animal testing methods is one of our most vital campaigns," says Jessica Sandler, director of PETA's Regulatory Testing Division. "The more modern, non-animal testing methods we have, the fewer the animals who will suffer and die in archaic and irrelevant tests."
Through the McGrath Family Foundation of San Diego, which supports PETA's efforts to replace animals in laboratories with modern alternatives, PETA has given a $62,000 grant to the International QSAR Foundation to support the acceptance of an alternative to carcinogenicity testing for drug development, cosmetics ingredients, and chemical testing. Currently, every time that a drug or a chemical is tested on animals to see if it causes cancer, as many as 400 animals are force-fed that drug or chemical for one to two years. Besides using no animals whatsoever, the new test will also be more precise than the animal-based tests.
In addition, PETA U.K.—one of PETA's overseas affiliates—is giving a $130,000 grant to CeeTox for the validation of a non-animal skin allergy test that is commonly used to test cosmetics. In the current animal tests, 32 to 80 guinea pigs or 16 to 60 mice have chemical substances repeatedly smeared onto their skins or injected into their bodies. These tests take weeks and cost $4,000 to $7,000. The non-animal test takes three to four days and costs less than half of what the animal tests cost. This test is especially timely because as of 2013, the marketing of cosmetics that have been tested on animals will no longer be allowed in the European Union. It also represents the first validation of a non-animal method funded by a nongovernmental organization.
Among PETA's previous grants was support for the validation of a non-animal skin irritation method that was subsequently accepted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and that has replaced the use of rabbits for chemical testing worldwide.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.