The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) has come out with a model software meant for easy documentation of the day to day activities in animal houses. The Central Animal Facility Management (CAFM) system developed by NIPER takes into consideration all the requirements that have been prescribed by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experimentation on Animals (CPCSEA).

"The software has been prepared taking into account all relevant points mentioned in the CPCSEA guidelines. It is extremely helpful in maintaining various records of animal stock, breeder, issue, sale, dead / disposal etc on real time basis," Prof P Rama Rao, director, NIPER informed.

However, other animal houses cannot blindly adopt the software, as it has been tailor made to parameters of NIPER facility. "Our engineers are capable of making necessary improvements in the software and provide it to any interested parties who are looking for have a fool proof system to track the performance of animal houses. While only 40% of the total CPCSEA instructions (Form D requirements) are relevant to our facility, others who are handling large animals, or experimenting on vaccines may need to have special parameters built into the software to make it work for them," he explained.

The Central Animal Facility of NIPER breeds and maintains different species of small laboratory animals such as albino mice, albino rats, gerbils, hamster, guinea pig and rabbits. The computer centre of NIPER has in fact developed customized systems for various applications. Documentation of label composition of various formulations manufactured in India, ITC (HS) classification of drugs, drug intermediates and formulations, updation of formulation data base from ORG-MARG and directory of R&D capabilities in the field of tuberculosis are some of the completed projects undertaken by the institute in the recent past.
"We have the capability to work on much bigger projects. For instance, if someone needs to know the exact status of the ongoing R&D activities on tropical diseases within the country, we could do it for them," Prof Rao said.

The NIPER has a huge wealth of online information as it has subscribed to the Scientific and Technical Information Network (STN), a leading and comprehensive scientific online information service giving access to over 200 scientific and technical databases of chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and biotechnology.