Sumitomo Chemical and BASF have agreed to collaborate on research into a more sustainable, in vitro system for chemical safety evaluation. As the first step, the companies aim to establish a new line of fully functional cultured cells to enable the safety evaluation of chemicals in a more efficient and more precise way than conventional methods.

Recent years have seen an increase in stringent regulations for registration of agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the demand to increase human relevance of safety studies. For these reasons, the comapnies aim to create a system that supports the development of safe chemicals, while reducing the need for conventional animal testing.

• BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany
• Sumitomo Chemical Co, Ltd., Japan