A webinar hosted by the Education Committee and the SRPC Virtual Control Working Group to be held on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (3Rs) are principles that aim to minimize animal use while ensuring the scientific integrity of research. There are multiple initiatives around the world to reduce the use of animals in drug development. One interesting initiative was the topic of discussion in a past toxicologic pathology forum opinion piece led by several colleagues, where they discussed the introduction of Virtual Control Groups (VCGs) concept for nonclinical toxicity studies in anatomic pathology (Grevot et al., 2024; Guffroy et al., 2025). Since then, two additional publications have brought forward considerations and challenges regarding the use of VCGs for clinical pathology interpretation (Andaya et al., 2024; Adedeji and Naor, 2024). This topic was also discussed during the past Town Hall at the 2025 STP Annual Symposium in Chicago. The objectives of this webinar are to discuss the progress in industry on the use of virtual controls in nonclinical toxicity studies. Besides virtual controls, other initiatives such as the reduction in the usage of control groups and alternative strategies to minimize animal use will also be discussed. Additionally, the webinar seeks to gather additional comments from STP members who did not attend the Town Hall meeting in Chicago (2025 STP Annual Symposium).