The Work of the NC3RS in the UK - Essay Example

REVIEW ON THE WORK OF THE NC3RS IN UK Review on the Work of the NC3RS in UK Scientific and medical advancements all over the world are spearheaded by the existence of animal research that provides vital solutions to problems and predicts working solutions. The high quality of life that people enjoy is as a result of the development of medicines and treatment methods that are tested on animals before being used on people. However, the use of animals in medical research and scientific experiments have become a highly heated debate with activists of animal rights such as animal-rights extremist and anti-vivisectionist groups arguing that use of animals in such researches is cruel and unfair. Such groups have been campaigning for the total abolition of animal research despite the benefit the research provides and have argued that there is a need for innovation of other methods of testing rather than use of animals. The scientists and medical researchers on the other hand argued that no responsible researcher would make an animal suffer unnecessarily if there is a means to avoid it since they employ controls on animals in research which bound them to an ethical framework. The UK government has been very strict on this issue and has put in place the law for animal protection in 1986, which states out the ethical requirements to be used when carrying out animal research (Holmes, Creton and Chapman, 2010, p.10). As a measure to control animal research, the government introduced the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), in the year 2004. The aim of its establishment was to promote and develop high quality research that puts into place the 3Rs .The 3Rs used by the body is not new since it was introduced in 1959 by William Russell for animal welfare although in the last few decades, its framework has been improved. The government has been supportive to the NC3Rs, and since its inception, it has spent 25 million pounds in charitable support and funding its development schemes (Holmes, Creton and Chapman, 2010, p.19). The main aim of the NC3Rs is substitution of significant proportions of animal research by introduction of new techniques and development of existing substitutes techniques such as in vitro and in-silico methods. The body however believes that an immediate change is not a realistic dream since there is no existing technology to develop these alternatives and it will take time for them to come into full use. The year 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the principles of humane experimental techniques, a book that was published by Russell and Burch, and which describes a new 3Rs framework in carrying out research on animals; the NR3Rs has used the opportunity to expand its public engagements . The 3Rs links science and the society by providing a framework that leads to a mutual benefiting balance between the scientific innovation and ethics of animal research. The organization has used different methods in an aim of publicizing the issue, which included an essay completion run in conjunction with new scientific magazines. Through theNC3Rs, the parliamentary interest in animal research has increased and the number of questions in parliament on the use of animals in research has doubled (Weinbauer, 2012, p.77). Since the introduction of the NC3Rs in 2004, there have been 39 early day motions on animal research and in the parliamentary session of 2008/9, the motions relating to 3Rs received the highest number of signatures.. The NC3Rs in conjunction with a scientist magazine named ‘beyond animal research’ introduced an essay competition that challenged it readers to write imaginative essays about their vision on the future with fewer animals needed for research. The aim of the essays was to collect information that would give the organization new ideas towards achievement of their dreams and implementation of the 3Rs. They set a prize of the winning essay that was 5000 dollars, and this attracted many writers and more than 120 entries were made. They managed to collect a lot of valuable information that has helped them grow and achieve their aims. In 2009, the NC3Rs hosted a joint event at Cheltenham science festival, which was aimed at building on the theme of essay competition in order to collect more information from the public. The NC3Rs has continually held the UK in a position of the 3RS powerhouse by funding researches that are aimed at developing new models and tools that help to increase knowledge transfer across scientific disciplines and investment in research careers. The centre has introduced three different schemes that are aimed at supporting students at different academic levels to carry out researches on the discipline (Weinbauer, 2012, p.77). The main 3Rs research funding scheme awards grants up to three years to researchers who present research proposals that are evaluated by the centre and if they prove that the research would provide helpful information they fund the project. The other scheme is the small awards scheme that is involved in funding small researches carried out by undergraduate students and those carrying out masters programs although the funds provided in this scheme are less considering the numbers willing to perform the researches. The third scheme is the new introduced PHD studentship scheme that was introduced in 2010, which supports researches by PHD students and interested researchers receives full sponsorship of the research since at this level of education; their researches are expected to produce helpful information that has few chances of duplication. The NC3Rs studentship scheme was launched as a long term strategy in developing a cohort of young scientists from different areas with an aim of creating awareness of 3Rs in the early stages of their careers(National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research, 2011, p.46). The NC3Rs has worked in conjunction with other organizations such as the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the Biosciences Federation, which has highlighted the need for more PhD training opportunities in fields related to medical and scientific researches. One of the aims of the NC3Rs is minimizing the animal use in veterinary research and vaccine testing and they have moved very fast towards achievement of this. Before the introduction of the NC3Rs in 2004, the number of animals used in research went upto 50000 yearly and this was really opposed by the activists of animal protection. However, after the introduction of the NC3Rs less than 10000 animals are used for applied studies in vertinary medicine in great Britain yearly (Sherry, 2009, p.13). NC3Rs has set aside funds that are being used in generation of new tools used in basic research and regulatory testing that minimizes animal use in veterinary science. The introduction of such tools and equipment has reduced the chances of errors in experiments, which has in turn reduced the number of redone experiments that was common in the earlier years. An example of such developments include the development of an air-interface in vitro organ culture model of bovine respiratory epithelium that was introduced in 2013 by Dr Dan Tunker and the replacement of in Vitro assays for quantifying clostridia vaccine antigens that was introduced by Dr Keith in 2011 (Holmes, Creton and Chapman, 2010, p.15). The NC3Rs has launched initiatives on novel approaches to chemical risk assessment that is aimed at exploiting science and technology. Exploiting developments in basic research have advanced the 3Rs through building of centers that maximize collaboration between academia and industry. The potential of tissue engineering to replace animal use has been demonstrated over the years and an important advancement is the use of human epidermis models for skin irritation testing that was introduced in 2010 and it has proved to work effectively (Sherry, 2009 ,p.13). NC3Rs has worked closely with the BBSRC and other tissue engineers which have brought a programme of works to develop models of liver kidneys and lungs, which are used instead of using such organs from animals in order to test medicines or treatments. International regulatory guidelines on safety assessments of chemicals and pharmaceutical have an impact on animal use especially when medicines to be used on humans are first tested on animals. The NC3Rs has continually works with the industry towards implementation of regulations that will reduce the chemical impact experienced in animals during the tests. This has helped reduce the number of animals that die due to chemical reactions in their bodies that are a result of the tests done on them. Regulatory changes have been facilitated by the existing frameworks and have reflected a positive change towards effect of the chemicals on animals. The NC3Rs has generated scientific evidence which agrees with the international acceptance of fixed concentration procedure which reduces animal use for acute inhalation toxicity. This has been proved through many experiments, which began in 2009 and a final conclusion on the same was done in December 2013. The toxicity test is of particular concern for animal welfare as they generally require death or death impending as the endpoint (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research, 2011, p.59). This research has been done by the NC3Rs in collaboration with the Health protection Agency and the Safety Executive of the Chemical Industries and has provided an alternative method of assessing acute inhalation toxicity a major achievement in line with this research was the removal of single dose acute toxicity testing of pharmaceuticals in rodents prior to first tome testing in man. The use of non-human primates in scientific procedures has been an agenda in all the annual meeting held and towards this issue, NC3Rs has made an achievement by halving the number of primates use per mAb in development. the departments in charge of animals have pressured the NC3Rs in introducing methods of careful testing of chemicals on animals especially in therapies such as cancer which when done on one primate cannot be redone on the same primate. Halving the number of primates used in chemical testing of medicines and therapies is a positive move and is expected to be reduced more. The NC3Rs has raised the level of awareness in the biosciences sectors in terms of the available opportunities towards implementation of the 3Rs. this has been done through their website and publications which are updated often to increase the knowledge of experts in this sector. They have organized high quality scientific symposia and workshops in different research areas that has helped provide unique forums for discussion and interaction of the 3Rs. they have also carried out many surveys on the quality level of experimental designs and reporting of animal research in order to identify and address animal welfare issues(Weinbauer, 2012, p.67). In conclusion, the NC3Rs has been successful in achievement of its plans and its interaction with other bodies has made it easier to achieve their dreams. Although they haven’t reached the peak of their achievements, they are moving in the right direction in the aim of treating animals with care. Bibliography Holmes, A. M., Creton, S., and Chapman, K. 2010. Working in partnership to advance the 3Rs in toxicity testing. Toxicology, Vol267 no1, pp14-19. National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (Great Britain). 2011. NC3Rs achieveents . National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research..S.l. National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (Great Britain). 2011. Evaluating progress in the 3Rs: The NC3Rs framework. National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research. S.l. Sherry, C. J. 2009, Animal rights: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, California Weinbauer, G. F. 2012, Challenges in nonhuman primate research in the 21st century: [19th Covance Primate Symposium took place in Münster on 23rd et 24th of Mai 2012], Münster, New York. Read More