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practical work of organising 3 ‘closed’
experts meetings (in Madrid, Basle and
Alicante) was carried out already in 2008.
The follow-up of 3 ‘open’ workshops
ended also already in 2009—namely, a
Refinement Workshop which took place in
Rome (26-27 February 2009), a Reduction
Workshop in Innsbruck, Austria (3-4 July
2009), and a Replacement Workshop in
Budapest (2-3 October 2009).
Thus, all practical work foreseen in the
project was carried out before the end of
the project. All reports of the individual
workshops were made by the Co-ordinator
and corrected by all stakeholders involved.
At the official end of the project, a final
report, including an executive summary,
recommendations and roadmaps were
sent to the European Commission for final
improvement. Due to the introduction
of new computer programmes and new
website links at the EU level, there was
some confusion and it took several months
before all documents were officially
cleared.
The budget, necessary for a final booklet
dedicated to the project, was not present
anymore after the official ending of the
project. However, a special effort was
made by the responsible team of the
Co-ordinator to still make an attractive
booklet with the official report present in
attachment on a CD. This was finalised by
the beginning of January 2011 and is now
available for distribution. The booklet is
being distributed now to all participants
of the project (223 persons in total), other
scientists and organisations. It contains
a number of topics that should be taken
up as much as possible in future projects
within the EU Framework Programmes.
They can be summarised as follows:
Collation of 3R Topics in
Pharmaceutical Research
• Animal experiments are still needed
and realistic progress is expected by
intelligent combination of refinement,
reduction and replacement
methodologies/strategies. This is, in
particular, relevant in animal disease
models. In vivo and in vitro research
and testing should go together
and not be seen as two opposites.
• It was emphasised that an alternative
method does not necessarily need to
be formally validated; the fact that a
test is useful in the pharmaceutical
industry is of more importance.
• Data obtained from in vitro tests,
carried out before in vivo experiments
start, can efficiently filter compounds
of interest. These pre-tests should be
of a higher degree of sophistication
and complexity than is the case
now (e.g., use of 3D-cultures, cocultures,
stem-cell derived models,
organ-specific and differentiated cell
cultures); more human cells use and
more attention for the parameters
measured (e.g., it is unlikely that
only one biomarker will cover the
complexity of the living organism),
therefore a set of specific biomarkers
of clinical relevance increases the
translational nature of the in vitro
model used; these should be developed
at least for key organs and new and
potent tools should be involved (e.g.,
PROGRESS REPORTS FROM EU-FUNDED PROJECTS
Progress Report 2011 & AXLR8-2 Workshop Report
181