Alternatives to Animal Testing: Toward Reducing Uncertainty and Unintended Consequences

Abstract

Progress in the development and application of replacement alternative methods is discussed, with particular reference to the new technologies and their use in current initiatives to tackle the problem of drug-induced liver injury. The formidable challenges involved are discussed in terms of improving our understanding of the immense puzzles to be solved, our inability to control events, and the law of unintended consequences. Nevertheless, the future is bright, and the reign of the animal-models-tell-us-all and one-drug suits-all philosophies is rapidly coming to an end.