The Humane Society of the United States is a founding member of International Councils on Animal Protection in OECD and Pharmaceutical Programs (ICAPO and ICAPPP)—umbrella associations through which animal protection organizations interact with global chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators who meet under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH), and Veterinary International Co-operation on Harmonization (VICH), respectively. All three entities publish influential test guidelines, which rely heavily on cruel and outdated animal-based methods. Through ICAPO and ICAPPP, The HSUS seeks to promote a transition to alternative methods and testing strategies that replace, reduce or refine animal use.
The OECD is an economic alliance of 30 countries that works to promote international consistency in many areas, including the testing, labeling and regulation of chemicals. Since 2002, ICAPO has been recognized as an "invited expert" in OECD programs, alongside stakeholders representing business, labor and environmental interests. ICAPO's main focal areas include the OECD Test Guidelines and Existing Chemicals Programs, which include activities to evaluate the safety of "high production volume" chemicals, potential "endocrine disrupting" agents and ultra-small nanomaterials, as well as to assess the validity of computerized structure-activity relationship (SAR) models and other new technologies as alternatives to animal testing. HSUS served as ICAPO secretariat during its first three years of existence, and has contributed to a number of significant animal welfare advances at the OECD, including the development of international guidance test method validation and regulatory acceptance, the adoption of the first internationally validated in vitro tests, and the deletion of the antiquated oral LD50 test.
The ICH and VICH are trilateral dialogue groups that bring together government regulators and national industry associations from the three main international pharmaceutical markets—Europe, Japan and the United States—to work toward international harmonization of requirements and approaches to testing human and veterinary medicines to ensure their safety, effectiveness and quality. Due to the decentralized structure through which ICH and VICH operate, interactions with ICAPPP occur predominantly at the regional level between regulatory or industry bodies in the European Union, United States and Japan and ICAPPP member groups in those regions (e.g., ICAPPP has been granted "interested party" status by the European Medicines Agency). Through these forums, ICAPPP seeks to promote the development and/or revision of test guidelines to fully incorporate alternative methods that replace, reduce and refine animal use.
Other ICAPO/ICAPPP member organizations include:
