Merck Animal Alternative Award

To support the 3Rs philosophy, since 1994, Merck has annually presented an Animal Alternative Award to the team of Merck scientists who develop new techniques to support the alternative principle. The 2008 animal alternatives award went to two papers that demonstrated the refinement in animal studies and reduction in the use of animals through quantitative 3D-Micro-Ultrasound in mice for hypertensive model development as well as atherosclerosis biomarker studies. The model paper was a poster at the 2008 Experimental Biology Conference and the latter studies were published in Atherosclerosis.

The 2007 winner determined the acceptable re-use of rats in pharmacokinetic studies, reducing the number of rats needed for these types of studies. This research was published in the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Federation Proceedings. The 2006 winner developed a novel, less-invasive method for chronic monitoring of drug levels in cerebrospinal fluid. This is important for looking at therapies that treat brain diseases.

Merck also supports nongovernmental organizations interested in developing and promoting alternatives and the 3Rs — such as the Johns Hopkins Center for Animal Alternatives to Testing, and the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing — as well as organizations that promote animal welfare in research, such as the Scientist's Center for Animal Welfare and the Institution for Laboratory Animal Research at the National Academy of Sciences.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

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