The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) will be funding a few Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) compliant animal facilities for pre clinical trials in the public sector. These facilities in the identified places will be open for the private sector for use.

As part of the initiatives to boost the infrastructure for the pharma industry, the DoP has identified a few public sector institutes for the purpose and the first instalment of fund are expected to be released within a month, as per the plans, sources in the department revealed. Three to four such animal houses, costing upto Rs 5 crore, are thus to be established for helping the industry. “Though these facilities are being set up in the public sector, it will be open for the private companies and organizations for conducting clinical trials,” an official said.

The department has already tied up with Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals (KAPL) at Bangalore for the proposed facility. Another one is coming up at the Guwahati. The DoP is setting up a National Centre for Research and Development of Phyto-pharmaceuticals at Guwahati in Assam, with advantage of having large variety of species suitable for phyto-pharmaceutical products in the North-East region. The work for the centre, which is going to be the first of the kind in the country, is expected to begin in the next year, as per the plans of the DoP. An animal testing facility will be part of this project. The Department has also short listed Hyderabad for another such facility and talks are on with the public sector institutions there.

The long-term plan of the Department is to set up GLP compliant animal facilities in the private-partnership mode and it has already invited expression of interest from public-funded institutes, public sector units and private organizations in this regard. The facility, in compliance with the latest GLP norms, is estimated to come up with an investment of Rs 10 crore in which the government support will be of Rs 5 crore. However, as the medium term plan, the government is setting up a few animal houses in the public sector now, following the complaint from the industry about the lack of adequate facilities for research and development in the pharma sector.