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Towards in vitro models for reducing or replacing the use of animals in drug testing

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2023)Cite this article

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Pharmaceutical companies continue to advocate for the use of in vitro models towards the reduction of animal use in drug discovery and development while acknowledging that further advancements are needed to heighten the models’ current state of readiness.

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Fig. 1: Types of in vitro NAM.

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Acknowledgements

This Comment was developed with the support of the International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ, www.iqconsortium.org). IQ is a not-for-profit organization of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a mission of advancing science and technology to augment the capability of member companies to develop transformational solutions that benefit patients, regulators and the broader research and development community. Within IQ, we recognize J. Brady, R. Abrahamson, R. Evers (Janssen) and T. Chan (Boehringer-Ingelheim) for their careful review of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quantitative, Translational & ADME Sciences, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA

    David M. Stresser & Gary J. Jenkins

  2. International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ) https://iqconsortium.org/

    David M. Stresser, Anna K. Kopec, Philip Hewitt, Rhiannon N. Hardwick, Terry R. Van Vleet, Prathap Kumar S. Mahalingaiah, Denice O’Connell, Gary J. Jenkins, Rhiannon David, Jessica Graham, Donna Lee, Jason Ekert, Aaron Fullerton, Remi Villenave, Piyush Bajaj, James R. Gosset, Sherry L. Ralston, Manti Guha, Alejandro Amador-Arjona, Kainat Khan, Saket Agarwal, Catrin Hasselgren, Xiaoting Wang, Khary Adams, Gaurav Kaushik, Arkadiusz Raczynski & Kimberly A. Homan

  3. IQ Microphysiological Systems Affiliate (IQ-) https://www.iqmps.org/

    David M. Stresser, Anna K. Kopec, Philip Hewitt, Rhiannon N. Hardwick, Terry R. Van Vleet, Prathap Kumar S. Mahalingaiah, Rhiannon David, Jason Ekert, Aaron Fullerton, Remi Villenave, Piyush Bajaj, James R. Gosset, Manti Guha, Alejandro Amador-Arjona, Kainat Khan, Saket Agarwal, Xiaoting Wang, Gaurav Kaushik, Arkadiusz Raczynski & Kimberly A. Homan

  4. Drug Safety Research & Development, Pfizer, Inc., Groton, CT, USA

    Anna K. Kopec

  5. Chemical and Preclinical Safety, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

    Philip Hewitt

  6. Discovery Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Candidate Optimization, Bristol Myers Squibb, San Diego, CA, USA

    Rhiannon N. Hardwick

  7. Investigative Toxicology and Pathology, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA

    Terry R. Van Vleet & Prathap Kumar S. Mahalingaiah

  8. Global Animal Welfare, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA

    Denice O’Connell

  9. IQ 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) Translational and Predictive Sciences Leadership Group https://iqconsortium.org/initiatives/leadership-groups/3rs-translational-and-predictive-sciences/

    Denice O’Connell, Donna Lee, Sherry L. Ralston & Khary Adams

  10. IQ Translational and ADME Sciences Leadership Group (TALG) https://iqconsortium.org/initiatives/leadership-groups/talg/

    Gary J. Jenkins

  11. Clinical Pharmacology & Safety Sciences, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK

    Rhiannon David & Kainat Khan

  12. Product Quality & Occupational Toxicology, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jessica Graham

  13. IQ DruSafe https://iqconsortium.org/initiatives/leadership-groups/preclinical-safety/

    Jessica Graham & Catrin Hasselgren

  14. Safety Assessment, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jessica Graham & Donna Lee

  15. UCB Pharma, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jason Ekert

  16. Investigative Toxicology, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Aaron Fullerton

  17. Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland

    Remi Villenave

  18. Global Investigative Toxicology, Preclinical Safety, Sanofi, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Piyush Bajaj

  19. Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism, Medicine Design, Pfizer, Inc, Cambridge, MA, USA

    James R. Gosset

  20. Preclinical Safety, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA

    Sherry L. Ralston

  21. Discovery Biology, Incyte, Wilmington, DE, USA

    Manti Guha & Alejandro Amador-Arjona

  22. Investigative Toxicology, Early Development, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Saket Agarwal

  23. Predictive Toxicology, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Catrin Hasselgren

  24. Translational Safety & Bioanalytical Sciences, Amgen Research, Amgen Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Xiaoting Wang

  25. Laboratory Animal Resources, Incyte, Wilmington, DE, USA

    Khary Adams

  26. Nonclinical Drug Safety, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ridgefield, CT, USA

    Gaurav Kaushik

  27. Preclinical Safety Assessment, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Boston, MA, USA

    Arkadiusz Raczynski

  28. Complex in vitro Systems Group, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Kimberly A. Homan

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. K.A.H., D.M.S. and A.K.K. organized the manuscript, and facilitated inclusive discussions among all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to David M. Stresser or Kimberly A. Homan.

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Competing interests

All authors are employed by pharmaceutical companies, as per their affiliations. R.V holds equity in Emulate Inc.

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Nature Biomedical Engineering thanks Adrian Roth, Danilo Tagle and Y. Shrike Zhang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Stresser, D.M., Kopec, A.K., Hewitt, P. et al. Towards in vitro models for reducing or replacing the use of animals in drug testing. Nat. Biomed. Eng (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01154-7

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