Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to end the use of animals to test products including (1) vaccines, and (2) pharmaceutical products for bacterial contamination, and to use biochemical methods instead for these processes.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is committed to the principles of the three Rs: replacement, refinement and reduction, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals (NC3Rs). This commitment extends to both the research undertaken at their laboratories at South Mimms, and through their interactions with stakeholders. Where Marketing Authorisation Holders propose to use animals in tests required for ensuring the safety of medicines, the MHRA requests that non-animal alternatives are investigated and adopted where appropriate for patient safety.

The MHRA is also contributor to a revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for Biologicals and Vaccines under the leadership of the NC3Rs. These revisions propose that the WHO guidelines adopt the principles of the three Rs and include a general chapter on how regulators and Marketing Authorisation Holders can end the use of animal testing for biological medicines including pharmaceutical products for bacterial contamination and vaccines. These revised guidelines will be presented to the Autumn 2023 summit of the WHO for the consideration by committee and WHO members.