Testing for Toxicity to Reproduction and Endocrine Disruption – Compliance with REACH and the 7th Amendment

Who Should Attend
Professionals in the cosmetic and personal care or related industries that work and specialize in the following disciplines, as well as groups or companies that provide services in skin care in the following functions:

  • Research and Development 
  • Product Development
  • Regulatory Affairs 
  • Formulations Development
  • Safety Assessment

Description
With the unique position of the cosmetic and personal care industry on animal testing ban and emergence of REACH, this course is designed to present key parties involved, their positions, market leads and sources for information.

Testing for toxicity to reproduction and endocrine disruption using in vitro methodologies is one of the hardest challenges our industry is facing. ECVAM had initiated a specific project, ReProTect, aimed to address the detection of reproduction toxins and development and validation of test methods to evaluate, with an investment of $9.1 million to this project. In the process of seeking alternative methods, scientists broke down the reproductive cycle focusing on the different elements to assess in a two generation study. This 90 minuteaccredited course is focused on the understanding of current suggested methods in the validation pipe line.

Module 1: Definitions
  • Toxicity to reproduction
  • Endocrine disruption
  • Pharmacokinetic changes in pregnancy and maternity
  • ECVAM’s ReProTect
  • ICCVAM’s position
  • Animal testing

Module 2:
  • The reproduction cycle:
    – Fertility
    – Implantation
    – Pre-natal development
  • In vitro testing:
    – Whole embryo culture assay (WEC)
    – Micromass test (MM)
    – Embryonic stem cell differentiation (EST)

Module 3:
  • Endocrine disruption- relevance to the industry
  • In vitro testing:
    – Human thyroid culture
    – PanVera- ER binding assay
    – HeLa- ER antagonist
    – LUMICELL- ER agonist/antagonist

Summary and future direction

Question and Answer Session

• The research and understanding of the interaction between topically applied compounds and the skin.
• Findings in skin biochemistry and especially the upper layer of the skin- the stratum corneum
• Delivery of active compounds into and through the skin and the development of delivery systems to facilitate transport, improve bio-availability and reduce toxicity
• Design and development of topically applied formulations
• Design of clinical studies to substantiate market claims and to assure safety
• Academic teaching and lecturing
• Industrial experience in both development of active compounds, delivery systems and finished formulations
• Skin absorption studies in vivo and in vitro for safety/ efficacy assessment
• In vitro methodologies for safety assessment of topically applied compounds