Update of OECD QSAR Toolbox now available

ECHA/NI/17/26

The new version enhances the functionalities introduced by the April release, but also includes new features that can help companies preparing their registrations for the May 2018 registration deadline.

Helsinki, 8 August 2017 – The Toolbox version 4.1 improves the functionalities of the major release (4.0) launched in April 2017. In addition, it introduces new features that are relevant for the REACH 2018 registrants:

• A new skin sensitisation database with standardised LLNA data from REACH registrations, which contains information on the potency of skin sensitisation;
• A new ‘protein binding’ for the skin sensitisation profiler that is compatible with the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation and the Globally Harmonised System (GHS);
• Import of predictions made with the Toolbox to IUCLID through Web Services;
• Document Save/Load feature, which enables you to save your workflow at any time;
• Updated repeated dose toxicity profiler and five other profilers, update of eight simulators; and
• New export of the data matrix to Excel without the need to perform a prediction.

More details about the update are available on the QSAR Toolbox website, where the software can be downloaded from free-of-change. The next update of the Toolbox is expected in the beginning of 2018.

What is the OECD QSAR Toolbox?

The QSAR Toolbox is a software for retrieving chemical and toxicological data, finding analogues and building categories based on chemical and mechanistic similarity, and for predicting substance properties based on data from similar chemicals. It helps companies and authorities to use computational methodologies to group chemicals into categories and to fill data gaps by read-across, trend analysis or (Q)SAR to assess the (eco)toxicity hazards of chemicals. Reliable predictions allow companies to reduce costs and the use of animals to comply with REACH.