ECHA has published advice on how to use the OECD guideline to REACH registrants on how to reliably combine different sources of non-animal data on skin sensitisation properties of their substances. This is the first guideline outlining how to use in silico tools like the QSAR Toolbox for this purpose. Mike Rasenberg, ECHA’s director for hazard assessment, described it as “an important milestone for advancing the use of alternative methods to assess chemical hazards”.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has approved the world’s first toxicology testing strategy without animal testing. This can now be used to test for skin sensitisation and any products that pass can be placed on the market.

The strategy, which consists of three ‘alternative’ methods, was jointly developed and validated over ten years by BASF and Givaudan, in partnership with various companies and scientific institutions, notably IIVS. It is claimed to have better predictivity for human allergy risks than traditional animal testing.