EIR2026/00514 - Laboratory environment's recording not a KPI in the 2025 Strategy
Published 10 June 2026
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1. Your request
If a drug’s ‘predicted environmental concentration’ is a trigger for a Phase II review, why is the ‘predicted environmental concentration’ of a laboratory environment’s own chemical waste not a KPI in the 2025 Strategy ‘Replacing animals in science: a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods.’
What is the VMD doing to rectify this serious omission?
2. Our reply
The VMD does not hold the information you have requested. The matters you raise relate to the regulation of laboratory environments and the management of laboratory chemical waste. The VMD does not regulate laboratories or their waste disposal facilities.
The VMD regulates veterinary medicines and conducts an environmental risk assessment on each veterinary medicinal product before it is allowed to be marketed in the UK.
This risk assessment focusses on how the product will be used once on the market, taking into consideration the type of animal it will be used on, the indications for which it will be used, and the doses that would be administered to the animals that need the medicinal treatment. It does not take into account, for example, the waste generated by the laboratories used in the development of such veterinary medicinal products, or the factories in which they are manufactured.
We therefore do not hold any information regarding why predicted environmental concentrations within laboratory environments are not included as KPIs in the 2025 Replacing animals in science strategy, nor information on any actions taken to address this. If required, you may wish to redirect your enquiry to the relevant environmental agencies responsible for regulating laboratory waste across the UK