Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM)
The Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) established an ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) in September 1994 to develop a report responsive to the requirements in the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (P. L. 103-43). The Act required NIEHS to establish criteria for the validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative toxicological testing methods and to recommend a process to achieve the regulatory acceptance of scientifically valid alternative test methods.
In 1997, the ad hoc Committee published its final report, Validation and Regulatory Acceptance of Toxicological Test Methods. An ICCVAM consisting of 15 federal agencies was established as a standing committee in 1997 to implement a process by which new test methods of agency interest could be evaluated and to coordinate cross-agency interactions related to issues on the development, validation, acceptance, and national and international harmonization of toxicological test methods. With enactment of the ICCVAM Authorization Act of 2000 (P. L. 106-545, 42 U.S.C. 2851-3), ICCVAM was made a permanent interagency committee of NIEHS under NICEATM, which is located at NIEHS in Research Triangle Park. NICEATM and ICCVAM have developed a Five-Year Plan to:
- Research, develop, translate, and validate new and revised non-animal and other alternative assays for integration of relevant and reliable methods into Federal agency testing programs
- Identify areas of high priority for new and revised non-animal and alternative assays or batteries of those assays to create a path forward for the replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal tests, when this is scientifically valid and appropriate
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