The role of the UKEMS in the development of testing guidelines

Twenty years ago UKEMS established a sub-committee to determine the minimal professional criteria that should be achieved to comply with mutagenicity testing requirements in the UK. Recommendations on the conduct of basic and supplementary tests were published in 1983 and 1984, respectively. Despite their local distribution, these recommendations had an impact around the world. Further guidelines for statistical evaluation of mutagenicity test data and revisions to the first two volumes followed. By the early 1990s the mood was for international harmonization rather than national or regional isolation. The processes by which UKEMS had achieved its testing recommendations in the 1980s and early 1990s were successfully employed in the International Workshops for Genotoxicity Testing, of which three have now been held, and made a significant impact on OECD guidelines and ICH guidance. Summary outcomes from the latest meeting (2002 Plymouth Workshop) are given.