Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the data collated in the Centre for Human Specific Research's Recombinant Antibodies and Mimetics Database on advancing studies in (a) disease mechanisms, (b) diagnostics and (c) therapeutics.

The Government is committed to the development of non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year. Recombinant antibodies offer enhanced reliability, consistency, and specificity compared to traditional animal-derived antibodies, strengthening studies into disease mechanisms, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Resources like the Recombinant Antibodies and Mimetics Database from the Centre for Human Specific Research are important information sources to support their wider uptake. Further steps supporting alternative methods, including any targets to phase out specific applications of animal testing, will be outlined in the upcoming strategy.