Singapore: BASF has provided US-based Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS) with equipment critical to replacing the use of animals for eye irritation testing of certain chemicals. IIVS will place the units at each of its newly developed training laboratories in Xi'an, Beijing, and Guangzhou, China.

With a long history in the development and use of non-animal methods, BASF engineered and produced the instrument, known as an opacitometer, to provide a reliable, state-of the art, and commercially available platform for the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability (BCOP) assay.

"We determined that development of this equipment was necessary to standardize the BCOP assay for our own internal use. Realizing that it could help scientists around the world implement this important non-animal method, we made it commercially available in 2010 at production cost," says Dr Susanne Kolle, head of applied alternative methods at BASF. "We are proud to support IIVS' efforts to promote the use of non-animal methods in China by providing three opacitometer kits."

IIVS, a non-profit laboratory based organization, has recently expanded its international outreach and training program. Dr Rodger Curren, president of IIVS, comments on the importance of the donation. "The three BASF opacitometer kits allow our staff to rapidly train Chinese scientists and regulators using state-of-the art equipment. The BCOP assay provides a predictive and cost effective alternative to the use of live animals for eye irritation testing."

BASF has been a contributor to IIVS since 2010 and the two organizations have collaborated on several projects including inter-laboratory validation studies of non-animal methods.