The 1993 Revitalization Act charged the National Institutes of Health with developing research methods that do not require animals, that reduce the number of animals used, and that produce less pain and distress in animals. Rapid advances in the biological sciences and in biotechnology have provided the tools to develop and validate novel testing methods. Since the majority of animal testing is required by regulatory agencies for toxicologic evaluations, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), through the National Toxicology Program (NTP), has established an interagency group with representatives from 14 Federal agencies to support the infrastructure needed for the evaluation of new testing methods.



Since its inception, this group, known as the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), has developed criteria for the validation and regulatory acceptance of new test methods. One of the ICCVAM's recent accomplishments has been the evaluation and acceptance of a new test to replace traditional skin hypersensitivity assays. The new method, a lymph node assay involving mice, uses fewer animals and produces information in a more timely way. It is likely that more test substitutes will be available for regulatory acceptance in the near future.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (Text)