The recently concluded International Conference on Alternatives to the Use of Animals in Research and Education in New Delhi once again brought to the fore the issue of indiscriminate use of animals in pharmaceutical research and their upkeep. The meet was organized by CPCSEA and the Department of Biotechnology. Two key conclusions emerged out of the Conference. The first was a proposal for establishment of a national centre to develop alternatives to animal experimentation with focus on dissemination of information and data sharing on inter institutional, inter company and inter country basis. Second suggestion was to establish a common platform of experts for screening of research projects with the objective of avoiding repetitive bio medical research using animals. This body should also have representatives from all government agencies, which promote research and funding. Both the suggestions make a lot of sense. Duplicate and repetitive bio medical research using animal subjects particularly rats and mice has been a regular trend in pharmaceutical industry in India and other countries engaged in new drug research. According to an industry estimate, between 3.4 to 3.7 million rats are killed annually in the research laboratories of pharma industry. These experimental procedures, mainly invasive, are extremely painful and are usually conducted without anaesthesia. These small animals are invariably used in 80 to 90 percent of all experiments. A question often raised by the animal activists here is the relevance of using rats and mice in these experiments. Although rats and mice have highly developed central nervous system, feel pain and suffer from stress of confinement, certain recent studies in rats on heart disease, cancer and stroke have proved confusing because of the serious differences in rat and human physiology.Some leading pharmaceutical scientists thus believe that extrapolating the results from experiments on these animals to humans is highly improper. This viewpoint may not be easily accepted by large sections of scientific community and it will not be possible to stop experimentation on rats and other animals altogether. But, certainly their numbers can be brought down by avoiding repetitive research. The proposed committee of experts for screening research projects should play a key role in this regard. A related issue here is the upkeep of animals for research. It is a fact that reputed research institutions including the ones belonging to the government, keep the animals used for research in an extremely unhygienic and horrid conditions. If Maneka Gandhi, the former chief of CPCSEA, has been harsh at some of the research institutions for not maintaining animal houses, she was quite right. There has been no system of periodic inspection of animal houses maintained by of research institutions. It is high time that a minimum standard for animal houses has been laid down and strictly enforced.