EU, UK and international

European Union

On June 1, 2026 the Commission adopted a roadmap toward phasing out animal testing in chemical safety assessments. It sets 22 actions and more than 30 recommendations across 15 legislative domains, including industrial chemicals, pesticides, biocides, pharmaceuticals and food and feed additives. It adds indicators, a public dashboard and a high-level review conference in 2029. The Commission notes over 15 million animals were used for EU regulatory testing from 2015 to 2023, nearly 40% of them for chemical safety.

The roadmap responds to the 2023 European Citizens' Initiative on cosmetics and delivers on the July 2025 Chemicals Action Plan. It sets direction, not bans. Binding change will come through REACH revisions and agency guidance.

EMA issued its first qualification opinion for a PBPK platform, Certara's Simcyp, in August 2025 for defined drug-drug interaction uses. EFSA formed an internal NAMs advisory group in 2026 and is working on applying the roadmap to pesticides and biocides.

United Kingdom

The November 2025 strategy, Replacing animals in science, pairs GBP 75M with dated targets:

• Rabbit pyrogen test replaced by end of 2025.
• Skin irritation, eye irritation and skin sensitization animal tests replaced by end of 2026.
• Botulinum toxin batch potency and adventitious agent testing replaced by end of 2027.
• Fish acute toxicity testing replaced for UK REACH by 2028.
• Significant cuts in dog and nonhuman primate PK studies by 2030.

A new UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (UKCVAM) and a committee chaired by Lord Vallance oversee delivery. The strategy sets no binding targets for basic research, where most UK animal use occurs.

Other regulators and bodies

• Australia: the TGA published its NAMs position in October 2026. It uses a weight-of-evidence approach, with NAMs alongside animal studies where uncertainty remains.
• OECD: test guidelines and defined approaches remain the main route to international acceptance for chemical NAMs.
• C-Path: the NAMs Developer Coalition (May 2026) gives developers a shared channel to regulators on qualification.