The Chennai-based pharma major, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (Orchid) has announced that its state-of-the-art Research & Development (R&D) centre located in Chennai has received the Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) certification.

This certification covers areas like physical-chemical testing, safety pharmacology & pharmacokinetic studies, toxicity studies, mutagenicity studies and analytical & clinical chemistry testing. Issued by the National GLP Monitoring Authority, this certification will provide a strong thrust to
Orchid's ongoing new drug discovery (NDD) research programmes, says the release.

The certification is in accordance with OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) principles for GLP certification with which India's National GLP Compliance Monitoring Authority of the Department of Science & Technology is aligned with.

According to the company release, Orchid is driving growth through a twin strategy of catering to the expanding global generics market and fulfilling the need for enhanced new drug pipeline. As part of this strategy, apart from USFDA compliant generics formulation facilities, Orchid has established a new world-class drug discovery & development infrastructure. Orchid has end-to-end capabilities to develop and screen New Chemical Entities (NCEs) from the basic in-silico drug design to validation of compounds in various pre-clinical models.