Animal-Testing Alternative

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved healthcare company Allegran’s request to move toward in-vitro, cell-based testing of its Botox brand of injections. Over the next three years, the company plans to phase out testing its products on mice, leading to a 95-percent reduction in animal tests. Animal advocacy organizations such as the British Union of Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments applaud the effort. BUAV recently investigated Wickham Laboratories and found that more than 74,000 mice annually were used in the testing of the company’s Dysport Botox product.