The European project to reduce the number of animals used in experimentation, VICT3R, adds new partners and increases its budget to €30 million

(Press-News.org) The VICT3R project is expanding its consortium by adding new beneficiaries and organisations to the network of contract research organisations (CROs) associated with the project. This expansion increases the project budget to €30 million and reinforces VICT3R's mission to transform the way safety is assessed in drug and chemical development, reducing reliance on laboratory animals.

New beneficiaries include leading industrial partners such as Servier Group and Zoetis Belgium SA. Servier is an independent international pharmaceutical group governed by a foundation, committed to therapeutic innovation, while Zoetis is the world's leading animal health company.

In addition, the project welcomes CAATevents gGmbH, an SME established in Germany as a non-profit organisation to support CAAT-US and CAAT-Europe, which focus on the development and validation of alternatives to animal testing.

These additions bring the total number of organisations associated with the VICT3R consortium to 37 in 12 countries, including six academic institutions, eight SMEs and 23 industrial partners from the human, veterinary and agricultural sciences sectors. With this expansion, the total project budget has increased to €30 million.

Other organisations have formally joined the VICT3R community by signing associated CRO agreements: Charles River Laboratories International Inc., a leading global provider of solutions for drug discovery, development and manufacturing;  Scantox A/S, a contract preclinical research organisation supporting pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies in drug development; and Labcorp, a global leader in innovative and comprehensive laboratory services. 

These organisations contribute valuable data from studies and decades of experience to support the development of virtual control groups (VCGs), a cornerstone of the VICT3R project.

Ferran Sanz (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain) VICT3R Project Coordinator: “Given its potential for reducing the number of animals used in toxicology testing, the VICT3R project is generating great interest from industry stakeholders across different sectors, as reflected in the high number of companies involved in the project.”  

Thomas Steger-Hartmann (Bayer, Germany), VICT3R Project Lead: “With the addition of the new partners, VICT3R will increase its outreach and momentum. The CROs and laboratory will contribute to the speed of uptake of VCGs in pre-clinical testing.”

Frank Bringezu (Merck Healthcare KGaA, Germany), VICT3R Co Lead: “With these new partners, the project substantially increases its impact and positions the VICT3R consortium at the forefront of transformative advancements in animal reduction, replacement and refinement.”

 

About VICT3R VICT3R (Developing and Implementing Virtual Control Groups to Reduce Animal Use in Toxicology Research) is a public-private partnership funded by the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI JU). The 3.5-year project, led by Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain) and Bayer AG (Berlin, Germany), launched in September 2024, aims to reduce the use of animals in safety testing by replacing traditional control groups of live animals with Virtual Control Groups (VCGs) − statistically robust alternatives generated from historical study data, advanced statistics, and artificial intelligence.

In non-clinical safety studies, animals are often used as untreated controls for comparison purposes, with experiments typically including three treatment groups and one control group. VICT3R’s goal is to replace these control animals with virtual equivalents, thereby reducing the overall number of animals required − by up to 25% in some cases − while maintaining scientific rigor and regulatory acceptance.

By building a shared database of high-quality historical control data and working in close collaboration with regulators, contract research organisations, and industry, VICT3R is laying the foundation for a more ethical, efficient, and sustainable approach to toxicology.

Inari Soininen (SYNAPSE Research Management Partners S.L., Spain), VICT3R Project Manager: “The VCG concept is more than a technological advance – it represents a shift toward a more ethical and sustainable approach to safety testing, benefiting both the research community and society at large.”

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