A toxicology databank based on animal safety evaluation studies of pharmaceutical compounds

Thirteen UK pharmaceutical companies have provided comprehensive toxicological data from repeated-dose animal safety evaluation studies of 74 pharmaceutical compounds. These data comprise a unique toxicology database and this paper describes its establishment including the problems encountered, its current size with over 35 000 data fields, its content and potential value for retrospective analyses. Increasing reliance on animal studies for predicting the safety of medicines in man necessitates a reappraisal of conventional animal testing procedures and better use of the considerable volume of data in the archives of regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical companies. This reappraisal may be achieved by the use of computer-based toxicology databanks.