{"id":3285,"date":"2026-06-30T17:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:22:27","slug":"eu-moves-away-from-animal-testing-for-medicines-new-guidelines-reduce-reliance-on-rabbit-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/eu-moves-away-from-animal-testing-for-medicines-new-guidelines-reduce-reliance-on-rabbit-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Moves Away from Animal Testing for Medicines: New Guidelines Reduce Reliance on Rabbit Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) has updated twenty guidelines to phase out the use of rabbit tests for checking harmful contaminants in injectable medicines, such as vaccines. These changes will take effect on July 1st and are part of a larger effort to replace animal testing with more modern, ethical alternatives. The updated guidelines cover nineteen revised EU rules for batch testing of medicines and a specific guideline for the malaria vaccine Mosquirix, the first of its kind globally approved vaccine against malaria. These new rules ensure that all batches of immunological medicines in the EU are tested consistently and transparently to guarantee their safety and effectiveness. Instead of relying on the rabbit pyrogen test (RPT), which checks for harmful fever-causing substances, the updated guidelines now require the use of more advanced tests that can detect both bacterial endotoxins and other fever-causing substances. This change aligns with the EU\u2019s broader goal to reduce animal testing in science, following the 3Rs principles: Replacing animals with alternatives, Reducing the number of animals used when replacements aren\u2019t possible, and Refining tests to minimize suffering. The removal of the rabbit test from these guidelines shows the EDQM\u2019s commitment to adopting new, non-animal testing methods. Additionally, last month the EDQM published a new guideline for mRNA vaccines, such as those used for COVID-19<\/a>, and updated two other guidelines for vaccines targeting infectious diseases. These new rules provide a clear and standardized approach for independent testing of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, combined COVID-19 and flu mRNA vaccines, and mRNA vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This ensures that these vaccines are thoroughly and consistently checked before being approved for use in the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) has updated twenty guidelines to phase out the use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pharmaceutical-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3291,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions\/3291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}