Dr. Magda Sachana has been a Policy Analyst within the Environment Health and Safety Division of the OECD's Environmental Directorate since 2015. Dr. Sachana manages the development and implementation of policies in the field of chemical safety and contributes to the OECD Test Guidelines, Pesticide, and Hazard Assessment Programmes. Among other projects, Dr. Sachana is managing the work of the OECD project on developmental neurotoxicity and omics technologies. Dr. Sachana is a trained veterinarian with an M.Sc. in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Toxicology.
From Roadmaps to Regulation: OECD’s Role in Advancing NAMs for Global Chemical Safety
Magda Sachana
Environment, Health and Safety Division, Environment Directorate, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, France
The global shift towards better and cost-effective chemical safety assessment that is based on ‘need-to-know’ rather than the ‘nice-to-know’ is increasingly driven by the adoption of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which offer scientifically robust alternatives, such as in vitro and in silico tools, but also approaches like chemical grouping and read-across for evaluating chemical hazards. This presentation explores the OECD’s role in contributing to the transition from national roadmaps to regulatory integration of NAMs, with an emphasis on pesticides and industrial chemicals.
Through its Test Guidelines Programme and the development of harmonised frameworks such as the Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment (IATA) and Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs), the OECD has enabled member countries to align regulatory practices and accelerate the uptake of NAMs. IATA case studies illustrate how NAMs are being embedded into regulatory processes, whereas AOPs demonstrate the importance of mechanistic understanding in test methods development based on human-relevant models, improving relevance, efficiency and ethical standards.
The presentation also highlights ongoing challenges relevant to technologies such as omics and complex endpoints like developmental neurotoxicity, including regulatory acceptance, databases, IT tools interoperability, and the need for uptake and training in NAMs across jurisdictions. Finally, this session offers insights into how NAMs can be supported through OECD, an intergovernmental organisation with long experience in international standardisation of chemical test methods and development of reporting templates and IT tools to enhance environmental protection and human health from chemicals.