ETHICS

Animal care is in compliance with BioTest SOPs and with following guidelines and regulations:

• the Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, 7th Edition (Institute of Animal Resources, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council; National Academy Press; Washington, DC; 1996)
• the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals Used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes (ETS 123)
• the Act of the Czech National Assembly, Collection of laws No. 149/2004, inclusive of the amendments, on the Protection of Animals against Cruelty
• Public Notice of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Collection of laws No. 207/2004, on keeping and exploitation of experimental animals.

BioTest is a holder of the Authorization for Breeding of Experimental Animals issued by the Central Committee for Animal Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture (ÚKOZ), Reg. No. CZ 1760152.

Conditions of breeding and work with laboratory animals follow the regulations of Council Directive 86/609/EEC, Czech Law No. 246/1992 and Public Notice of Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic No. 311/1997 Collect. of Law.

Ethical Codex of Welfare

• Laboratory animals are used exclusively for research and development of pharmaceutical preparations designed for human and veterinary medicine.
• If there is an approved alternative method for the given type of studies, they are given preference to the methods using animals.
• All the experiments and studies conducted with the use of animals have to be approved by Central committee of protection of animals and the corresponding Expert committee of BioTest s.r.o.
• The conditions under which the experiments are carried out are specified and checked by the relevant state authorities.
• The conditions of environment in which the animals are kept correspond to the respective standards specified in legislative of EU, support the welfare of animals and agree with particular specific requirements of individual species of animals.
• The number of animals used in studies is minimized with regard to the type of the given study.
• All the activities in a study are performed with respect to the needs of the animals and are directed to minimization of their stress and distress.
• All the staff members who deal with animals have undergone the respective training and courses, and their education in this area is continuously deepened. Only the workers having positive relationship to animals are allowed to work with animals.
• All the animals used in experiments come from BioTest’s own accredited breeding facility or are purchased from other accredited specialized suppliers.
• The above-mentioned principles are also stuck to if BioTest chooses their business partners.

You can download Ethical Codex of Welfare here: