ICCVAM Biennial Report 2018-2019

ICCVAM member agencies participate in the development and review of chemical testing guidelines issued by the OECD Test Guidelines Programme. OECD test guidelines are used by government, industry, and independent laboratories of the 36 OECD member countries to assess chemical safety. The U.S. National Coordinator for the OECD Test Guidelines Programme, an ex officio member of ICCVAM, solicits and collates U.S. comments on draft test guidelines and other documents of the Test Guidelines Programme. The National Coordinator represents the United States at the annual meeting of the Working Group of National Coordinators and in other test guideline development activities. Beginning in 2018, one or more ICCVAM subject matter experts have joined the U.S. National Coordinator at this meeting.

In 2018 and 2019, ICCVAM agencies commented on draft OECD documents through the U.S. National Coordinator. ICCVAM members and/or NICEATM staff also supported the Test Guidelines Programme during 2018 and 2019 by:

• Serving on an expert group developing a guideline for defined approaches for skin sensitization. The guideline will describe the adopted defined approaches with respect to their intended regulatory purposes of hazard identification or potency subcategorization.
• Serving on expert groups for skin sensitization and eye irritation, which are tasked with reviewing guidelines and guidance documents relevant to those endpoints.
• Serving on a peer review panel for an OECD-coordinated study evaluating the use of the kinetic direct peptide reactivity assay for classifying substances for skin sensitization potency.
• Serving on the Validation Management Group – Non-animal, which focuses on evaluation of new methods for identifying endocrine disruptors.
• Helping to develop a "Case Study on the Use of an Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment for Identifying Estrogen Receptor Active Chemicals," submitted to the OECD Working Party on Hazard Assessment. This case study was published in September 2019, and has since been adapted to create a proposal for a defined approach for estrogenic activity, submitted to the OECD in November 2019.
• Helping to develop a "Case Study on the Use of an Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment for Identifying Androgen Receptor Active Chemicals," submitted to the OECD Working Party on Hazard Assessment in 2019.