The existing regulations of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) are in for more changes, if the tone of the discussions that took place at the 13th Round Table Conference of Ranbaxy Science Foundation (RSF) on “Ethics in Animal Experimentation” is any indication. The conference organized in New Delhi on January 10 managed to bring together the staunchest animal welfare activists and the scientific community under the same platform and also succeeded in making them listen to each other’s concerns for larger good.
The biggest achievement of the conference is the common voice that was heard on the need to carry out experiments on animals for the development of life saving drugs. While the scientists should be happy that the CPCSEA has agreed to critically examine the existing rules and amend the most problematic clauses, the suggestion from CPCSEA to instruct all research institutions to have “Animal Care and Use Committee”, in addition to the existing Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IEAC), must have been music to the ears of the animal activists. Both the sections flayed unnecessary sacrifice of animals and agreed upon the need for time bound clearances of major research proposals.
The regulatory authorities and the pharmaceutical industry representatives tried to highlight the regulatory requirements of animal experimentation. Ashwini Kumar, Drugs Controller General of India in his lecture on “animal experimentation on drug regulatory requirement”, was at pains to explain the need to harmonise the animal experimentation norms with the international norms to ensure healthy growth for the research based Indian drugs sector. Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Dr KH Sreedhra Swamy of Nicholas Piramal gave the industry perspective of the issue and explained how the present rules prevent them from importing lab animals to conduct critical experiments. “Many of the companies are going abroad to conduct their animal studies. This is very expensive and also a revenue loss for the country”, they pointed out.
Dr Vasantha Muthuswamy spoke on the need for specific changes in CPCSEA regulations. She felt that the Rule 10, which calls for the purchase of animals only from a registered breeder, is creating problems for the scientists, as there are very few breeders in the country. “Many of them do not have the kind of animals needed for the purpose.” She explained. Dr Mohan Kumar of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) presented a case study of his institute with regard to animal experimentation to explain the “problems faced in the implementation of CPCSEA regulations”.
Sonya Ghosh of Delhi University and Amita Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, both CPCSEA nominees, talked about “animal welfare and scientific pragmatism” and “Institutional constraints to animal care in India” respectively.
HL Attri, member secretary, CPCSEA, who co-chaired the session on “Future of Animal Experimentation” agreed to head a sub-committee to take note of all the observations and complaints raised by the delegates during the seminar and help prepare the recommendations.
Dr Justice K Narayana Kurup, Former acting chief justice and Judge High Court of Madras, who spoke on “Animal Experimentation in Science –A Global overview and Indian scenario”, inaugurated the conference. Dr Nitya Anand, chairman, RSF welcomed the gathering. Dr OP Sood, RSF gave an overview of the activities of the foundation and proposed a vote of thanks.