Animal Experiments

(asked on 10th June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to phase out the LD50 toxicity test as an initial step to end animal testing.


Answered by
Feryal Clark Portrait
Feryal Clark
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 18th June 2025

The Government is committed to the development of non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year.

Significant progress has been made on validating alternative methods, including the possibility of replacing mice by in vitro suitable cell cultures in LD50-type testing methods, and relevant regulatory quality standards and testing requirements have been revised accordingly for these specific medicines.

The implementation of new tests for existing products must protect and prioritise human safety, often requiring extensive validation. It is not presently possible to replace all of the existing animal tests with in vitro non-animal replacements.

Reticulating Splines