Tox News: July 2026

Congratulations to Dr Fiona Sewell, our Head of Toxicology, who was elected Vice President of the British Toxicology Society (BTS) at its Annual Congress in April. Fiona also received an award recognising her contributions to the Society, reflecting her service on the BTS Executive Committee since 2019. These achievements highlight Fiona’s long-standing commitment to advancing the field of toxicology and her active role within the community.

Last month, the European Commission adopted its Roadmap towards phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments – a significant step towards replacing animal studies across sectors. 

The NC3Rs contributed to the evidence base underpinning this roadmap, including work on refining acute toxicity testing, reviewing the requirement for two species in regulatory toxicity testing and supporting the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) activities on environmental safety and endocrine disruptor assessment. 

In June, we brought together over 80 experts from academia, industry, regulatory agencies, policy makers and funders to explore how new approach methodologies (NAMs) can move from scientific innovation into real-world use in industry and regulatory decision-making to replace the use of animals in safety testing. 

The European Commission updated delegates on their recently published roadmap, alongside insightful presentations from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Procter & Gamble, Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), Labcorp, Charles River Laboratories, Innovate UK and the UK Office for Life Sciences. We also provided updates from our recent joint NC3Rs/BBSRC Business Interaction Voucher scheme. Discussions focused on how to strengthen confidence in NAMs, address key scientific gaps and accelerate their adoption in regulatory decision-making. A workshop report is being prepared. 

Sunday 13 September – Wednesday 16 September 
Vienna, Austria 

If you are attending EUROTOX 2026 this September, visit our poster to learn about Evidence to support a single-species approach in later development studies for small molecules. This is the latest update from our project to reduce animal use in regulatory toxicity testing for pharmaceuticals by reviewing the requirement for data from two species. 

We have contributed to a wide range of national and international events over the last few months, sharing outputs from our work, and evidence and expertise to inform regulatory and scientific discussions: 

• BTS Annual Congress: 
  We presented new evidence from our Two Species project, highlighting opportunities to adopt a single-species approach in chronic toxicity studies for small molecule pharmaceuticals. We also shared progress from our ecotoxicology programme. The NC3Rs exhibitor booth provided a great opportunity to engage with the toxicology community. 
• BTS/SETAC UK workshop: 
  Dr Natalie Burden, our Head of NAMs Strategy, co-organised the first collaborative workshop between BTS and SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) in her role as BTS Ecotoxicology Speciality Section co-lead. The workshop brought together a cross-sector, multi-stakeholder audience to explore how NAMs can be integrated into UK chemical regulation to support the transition towards non-animal safety assessment frameworks. A workshop report will be available soon. 
• SETAC Europe: 
  We contributed to several sessions and presented posters on projects from our ecotoxicology programme. These included findings from a recent survey of ecotoxicology practices in contract research organisations, highlighting opportunities for replacement, refinement and reduction of animal use, and our work on advancing confidence in use of NAMs for endocrine disruption assessment and fish acute toxicity testing. 
• CAMS/BTS DiscoTox Symposium: 
  This year’s DiscoTox, organised by Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety (CAMS) and BTS, explored how in vitro and in silico approaches are being used to de-risk new drugs without the use of animals. Our talk, The essential role of collaboration in advancing the application of NAMs, highlighted challenges and opportunities to support wider adoption of NAMs and the key role the NC3Rs plays in this area through activities such as the NAMs Network and Regulatory Sciences Forum. 

If you would like to know more about our activities at these events, please get in touch with the team.

Final session: Wednesday 15 July, 14.00 – 15.15 (BST) 

Our NAMs series showcases technologies to replace animal use in toxicity testing and provides collaboration opportunities for their further method development, qualification and use. Registration is open for the final session, featuring a genetically engineered lung cancer model, an embryonic zebrafish assay for developmental toxicity, lab-grown musculoskeletal tissues and human cardiac and multi-tissue safety screening assays. 

Recordings and speaker contact details for the first five sessions are available. The series has covered NAMs to support regulatory safety testing of medicines, environmental chemicals and consumer products, including bioavailability studies and compound screening, developmental and reproductive toxicity, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, direct exposure effects and off-target toxicities for organs including the heart, liver, lung and bone. 

Over 300 attendees from 26 countries joined us across two sessions focused on the essential role of anaesthesia in minimising pain, distress and adverse physiological effects for research animals. Veterinary anaesthetists from the Research Animal Anaesthesia Network (RAAN) covered the importance of good practice for improved animal welfare and reliable experimental outcomes, practical approaches to addressing common challenges, monitoring animals during general anaesthesia and the use of injectable agents.  

Best practices for the development and application of bioinformatics approaches for species extrapolation in chemical safety assessment 

A new paper outlines best practices for using bioinformatics approaches to support cross-species extrapolation in chemical safety assessment. Natalie contributed to this work through her role on the steering committee of the International Consortium to Advance Cross-Species Extrapolation. The paper highlights how mechanistic and computational methods can reduce reliance on animal testing and support regulatory decision-making. 

25 years of applying the 3Rs principles in safety pharmacology: Success stories and future perspectives 

As part of her activities as co-chair of the Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) 3Rs Working Group, Dr Elisa Passini co-authored a new review published in Frontiers in Physiology. The review highlights key milestones and innovations in applying the 3Rs in safety pharmacology over the past 25 years and outlines future opportunities to accelerate broader adoption of 3Rs strategies and NAMs within the field. 

Use of new approach methodologies for the assessment of endocrine disruption within European Union regulatory frameworks 

Natalie is a co-author on a report from the EPAA 2024 Partners’ Forum summarising current approaches to using NAMs for endocrine disruption assessment within the EU regulatory frameworks. It identifies key scientific gaps and informed recommendations in the European Commission roadmap towards phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessment. 

SPS/JSPS/ACT joint survey: NAMs industry practice 

Contribute to current thinking on the use of NAMs in drug safety testing by completing this joint survey from the SPS, the Japanese Safety Pharmacology Society (JSPS) and the American College of Toxicology (ACT). The survey should take around 15 minutes to complete and closes on 7 August. 

Practical Application of Toxicology in Drug Development 2026: Registration now open 

The Practical Application of Toxicology in Drug Development (PATDD) course co-organised by Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS) and BTS provides practical training in non-clinical safety evaluation and interpretation of safety data, covering both European and US regulatory toxicology perspectives. 

BTS Skills Gap Initiative: Register for new training modules 

The BTS Skills Gap Initiative provides targeted training modules designed to address recognised gaps in scientific and regulatory expertise within toxicology and safety assessment, supporting improved decision-making and implementation of the 3Rs. Registration is now open for the following modules: 

• Supplementary Module 3: Weight of evidence approaches in safety assessment (October 2026). 
• Core Module 8: Neurotoxicology (November 2026).