South Korea to introduce toxicity prediction software for chemical hazard assessment as alternative of animal testing

On May 28, 2024, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of South Korea announced that it plans to introduce a computer-based chemical toxicity prediction software called from 2027 in order to minimize the use of animal testing in the registration of chemical substances under the Act on Registration, Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals (hereinafter "K-REACH").

The QSAR Toolbox is a software jointly developed by the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). MOE stated that it will sign an agreement to develop a Korean language version of QSAR Toolbox. In South Korea, animal testing is currently the primary source of information for documenting chemical hazard data when chemical substances undergo the hazard assessment required under K-REACH. MOE intends to reduce such animal testing by using the toxicity data provided by the Toolbox.

The K-REACH controls the registration and hazard assessment of chemical substances as shown in the table below.