Syncwork participates in IHI JU VICT3R initiative to reduce animal testing in experimental studies

33 partner organizations, including Syncwork AG, will pool their expertise and skills for 42 months from 1 September 2024. Under the leadership of Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and Bayer AG in Berlin, they are committed to the VCG concept, drawing on their own control animal data from years of research. The project is supported with 28 million euros from the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) and contributing industrial partners.

With the initiative, the stakeholders involved are working towards replacing and reducing the number of animals in control groups and thus improving the process. To this end, the participants rely on virtual counterparts to reduce the total number of animals required for such studies by up to 25 percent while ensuring the highest ethical standards in scientific research.

VICT3R further develops promising VCG concept

The VCG approach, originally developed as a prototype in the eTRANSAFE IMI2 project, has shown promise in non-clinical safety assessment, but requires further refinement for adoption in regulatory hazard and risk assessment. VICT3R will further develop this concept by systematically addressing key challenges such as sharing, collecting and curating large amounts of data, identifying crucial variables for the perfect VCG-CCG match, and analyzing the results.

At the heart of VICT3R is an ambitious mission: to build a comprehensive, high-quality database of curated and analyzed control animal data across multiple species. This wealth of information will be available to partners, regulators and policy makers, which in turn will drive the further development of the VCG concept and demonstrate its validity, reproducibility and strength.

Syncwork AG's contribution: Complying with regulatory requirements and ensuring acceptance of the studies

“We are very pleased to be part of this great initiative and are happy to contribute to actively putting ethically valuable research into practice,” says Reiner Strauß, Head of Life Science at Syncwork AG. “Our work will ensure that the computer systems used comply with the GLP standards according to OECD No. 17. In this way, we fulfill the regulatory requirements and ensure the necessary acceptance of the studies.”

Weiterführende Links

• Further information on VICT3R