The Valitox / Pro Anima meeting in Strasbourg was a success !

At the initiative of Pro Anima an information meeting took place at the European Court on June 8 last.

The productive meeting was arranged by Sylvia and Jean-Pierre Hecker of Pro Anima in Alsace Loraine. The meeting heard about the background and explications of viable evaluations of chemicals in the context of REACH, presented by Prof. J‑F Narbonne and Dr. Christopher Furger.

The VALITOX program is particularly well suited to the REACH directive, both in terms of chemical products and cosmetics.

A lively and constructive debate followed the presentation, led by JF Narbonne and Pro Anima’s president Jean-François Béquain, before a targeted audience including several heads of Faculty and University staff, representatives of the Anti-Poison Centre, the Samu of the Environment, MEPs and their assistants as well as representatives of pharmaceutical companies and medical quality controllers. Also present were the Euroscience Foundation, the Pan Europe Association, public-sector researchers as well as the German chemical industry and the regional daily press.

The VALITOX program, aimed at evaluating both acute and chronic toxicity, can be adapted for human use. It is well suited to large-scale application and can be adapted for acute, sub-acute and chronic toxicities.

VALITOX takes its place alongside other cellular alternatives to animal testing, having a predictive capacity of 82%, compared to the 65% typically achieved on rats and mice.

VALITOX is currently undergoing validation at ECVAM (European Centre for Validation of Alternative Methods).

Following the meeting Alexandre Marciel, Deputy Mayor of Toulouse, said he was extremely interested in the possibilities opened up by these superior new techniques, suggesting that in the near future a platform should be established dedicated to alternative methods applied to public health via Tool/Tox.

Mr Nicholas Sire, parliamentary assistant to MEP Catherine Trautmann, gave the meeting an update on the progress of the REACH directive. Later on the VALITOX meeting was brought to a conclusion by Christian d’Andlau –Hombourg, secretary-general of Pan Europe who congratulated both the organizers and the commitment of Pro Anima.