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.

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.