Draize test /drāz/ [John Draize, American pharmacologist, 1900–1992)] , a controversial method of testing the toxicity of pharmaceutic and other products to be used by humans by placing a small amount of the substance in the eyes of rabbits. The eye-irritancy potential of a substance is considered a measure of the possible effect of the product on similar human tissues. The Draize in vivo test is recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a reliable method of predicting the risk of new products to human eyesight, although alternative testing methods are being sought.
