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With a view to assisting the evaluation of integrated approaches to testing and assessment (IATA) in regulatory decision-making within OECD Member Countries, this guidance document provides guidance on the reporting of defined approaches to testing and assessment in the area of skin sensitisation using the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) as a conceptual framework. Annex 1 (page 25) outlines twelve illustrative case studies for skin sensitisation and Annex 2 (page 279) lists information sources used within the case studies.

In this document the importance of mechanistic consideration in quantitative structure-activity relationship ((Q)SAR) analysis, the critical role of mechanistic consideration in improving various (Q)SAR approaches and possible integrative approaches of combining chemoinformatics and bioinformatics are discussed, mainly using carcinogenicity as an illustrative toxicity endpoint. The principles and issues described in this document are general and may also be used for various types of chemical assessment. The intended target of readership is for global chemical hazard/risk assessors in regulatory agencies, industries, non-governmental organization and academia who require reliable and scientifically supportable (Q)SAR information and predictions in their assessments as well as for developers/researchers who endeavour to produce scientifically reliable (Q)SAR predictive models and tools.

With a view to assisting the evaluation of integrated approaches to testing and assessment (IATA) in regulatory decision-making within OECD Member Countries, this guidance document provides a set of principles for reporting defined approaches to testing and assessment that can be used as one of the components within IATA. Templates are also provided to enable a structured approach to their documentation in order to facilitate their evaluation. A defined approach to testing and assessment consists of a fixed data interpretation procedure (DIP) applied to data generated with a defined set of information sources to derive a result that can either be used on its own, or together with other information sources within an IATA, to satisfy a specific regulatory need. Thus, a defined approach to testing and assessment can be used to support the hazard identification, hazard characterisation and/or safety assessment of chemicals. This guidance is intended to be used alongside similar guidance aimed at harmonising the reporting of other IATA components such as QSARs, grouping and read-across strategies, and non-guideline in vitro methods.

Acute toxicity tests are an area of focus for developing alternative assays and approaches to address animal welfare concerns. In the context of this document, acute toxicity studies refer to studies involving a single exposure to a test chemical and include those assessing systemic toxicity as well as those assessing local irritation, corrosion or sensitization. One approach to minimizing the use of animals for acute toxicity testing is to consider waiving a study that may be required based on scientific criteria. Another approach to reducing or eliminating animal testing is to use existing hazard information that is informative for the acute toxicity endpoint for the test chemical; this would include the use of hazard information for one or multiple similar test chemicals to characterize the hazard for another or for mixtures, the use of recognized calculation approaches and bridging concepts. This Document provides clarification on these approaches to ensure that regulatory authorities are provided with the appropriate data required for decision-making and that reduced animal testing can be undertaken without compromising the integrity of the hazard information.