Innovative approaches to reduce animal testing : replace whenever possible, reduce through refinement and mechanistic understanding

'Many of the in vitro toxicological studies have not been sufficiently validated to determine their applicability domain, even less have gained regulatory acceptance. Major advantage of in vitro testing today is the early identification of significant hazards in compound development and reduced and targeted animal testing. Replacing complex animal tests may be achieved by a battery of in vitro test addressing the adverse outcome pathway in question. Kinetics models are needed to translate in vitro results into in vivo values.