Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr S Chandrasekhar, has highlighted that with Government’s commitment and emphasis on further capacity building on Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) in the country, India is destined to be a global leader in the area.

“On March 3, 2011, India received the status of full adherence to the Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD), which gave global recognition to India’s non-clinical safety data by tremendously augmenting its credibility and acceptability across the globe,” said Dr Chandrasekhar at the opening meeting of the evaluation team from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is visiting the country for On-Site Evaluation (OSE) of the procedures and practices of the National GLP Programme.

The National GLP Compliance Monitoring Programme of India is implemented through the National GLP Compliance Monitoring Authority (NGCMA), under the administrative control of DST with Secretary, DST as its Chairman.

Dr Chandrasekhar informed that currently 52 test facilities in the country have been certified by NGCMA as GLP Compliant, which includes 3 Government labs - NIPER (Mohali), Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow and Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow. “The spectrum of activities of Indian GLP testing facilities (TFs) is wide, involving ten types of chemicals/test items and nine areas of expertise. The National GLP programme has not only helped to build a network of GLP TFs in the country but also created a huge quantum of highly competent human resources,” he added.