Roche announced the winners of its global 3Rs Award Programme which rewards innovation and continuous improvement in animal welfare within the Roche research organization. The award is based on the 3Rs concept, which means Replacing animal tests where possible, Reducing the number of animals required and Refining existing scientific practices as well as animal care and husbandry. Twenty-four teams of Roche scientists and animal care specialists from the companies' global research sites in Basel, Penzberg, Nutley and Palo Alto applied for awards in the two categories: Scientific Progress Fostering the 3Rs Idea and Laboratory Animal Care and Management.
In the Scientific category, first place went to a team of six scientists from the Non Clinical Safety research department in Palo Alto, California. Their project's specific innovations consist in an in vitro assay showing a high concordance with bone marrow toxicity seen in vivo, coupled with a mathematical model that can predict bone marrow toxicity. Using this assay and model, it is possible to reduce the number of animals involved in the related tests considerably.
The winner in the second category, a three person Laboratory Animal Care team from Roche Nutley, presented a special behavioural training developed for non-human primates. It allows the staff to interact with the animals and to acclimate them to a new environment, personnel, or procedure such as taking blood samples. It reduces the need for injecting anaesthetics, thereby decreasing the physiological stress associated with repeated anaesthesia. This method also allows clinical veterinary associates and laboratory animal technicians to accurately assess some behavioural or psychological problems, such as over-grooming, that may otherwise go unnoticed if only assessing animals in their cages.
"We are very pleased to see how much this award helped to encourage idea sharing across the global research organization and challenged our colleagues around the world to think of new ways to implement the 3Rs approach," explained Lee Babiss, Global Head for Pharma Research. "While the number of animals used in research has declined in recent years, researchers still depend on them to gain critical scientific knowledge for novel medicines and to predict the effectiveness and side effects of medicines in humans. About 70 percent of serious side effects of new medicines are only detectable through animal testing. The 3Rs Award is a unique and innovative program that helps to reduce and limit the use of animals in preclinical research while still realizing high-quality data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of our drugs."