Chapter 2.15 - Involvement of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Abstract

In the early 1980s, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) began to publish test guidelines (TGs) on how in vivo toxicity tests should be conducted in laboratory animals, although where and when such TGs should be applied was the responsibility of national and regional regulatory authorities. The first TGs for non-animal tests involved in vitro methods for genotoxicity, but, by the mid-1990s, alternative tests for other types of toxicity began to be validated and proposed for regulatory acceptance. The OECD published guidance on the development of TGs and on the validation and acceptance of new or updated methods for hazard assessment, and by the mid-1990s, TGs for validated individual non-animal tests began to be published. Later, guidance was published on the development, validation and acceptance of Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship models and integrated testing strategies.