Alternative methods

10 - 10 - 2018

Switzerland: Interpharma's 2018 report on the 3Rs

The Swiss pharmaceutical industry has published its 2018 annual report on the commitment made since 2010 to promote ethical standards and the 3Rs principle.

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In 2010, the Swiss pharmaceutical industry adopted a charter on the protection of animals and based on the ten commitments of this charter, published an annual report on research projects in the field of the 3Rs and alternative methods.

The 3RCC National Competence Center, which replaced this year to the 3Rs Research Foundation created in 1987, subsidized equally by the state and the industry, supports research in improving methods and alternatives.

This research, which benefits animals, is also positive for research. In fact, new methods discovered or developed are often less expensive and more reproducible.

 

 

The 2018 Annual Report of this research has just been published. It focuses on progress in the area of miniature human organs or organs on a chip. These models represent a transition between the human body and animal models.

They require biomedical knowledge in 3D cell culture, bio-printing, microfluidics and pluripotent stem cells. It is now possible to link up to five organ models on a chip and the research aims to link ten.

This technology is in its infancy. Thus the lung-chip often cited as an example, reproduces only two pulmonary cell types i out of the forty or so identified. The connection between five organs represents only a small part of the seventy-eight organs classically identified in the human body. This is why patient safety still requires the pharmaceutical industry to use animal experiments.

The report also presents the charter signed by the industry, the operations and contributions of 3RCC as well as ongoing projects.

 

 

Links :

https://www.interpharma.ch/sites/default/files/180920_iph_animal_welfare_web_f.pdf

https://swiss3rcc.org