The ambitious plan of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to set up GLP compliant labs in different parts of the country to help the manufacturers, especially the small and medium scale units, is in limbo with the deadline for appointing a consultant has been pushed further.

Though the DoP had invited expression of interests to appoint the consultant with April 25 as the deadline for tenders, the date has been now extended to May 31. The call for EoI was made to advise the government on setting up GLP compliant chemical testing laboratories, GLP compliant biological testing laboratories, and GLP compliant large animal house in public private partnership mode.

It is learnt that the proposal failed to generate keen interest among the industry and the response to the tender was not upto the expectations, raising apprehensions of the pre-mature death of yet another scheme which was mooted long back.

However, sources in the DoP did not comment on the number of responses made so far, on the ground that the tender was still in process. The extension was made to ensure participation of more interested teams, they added.

“With reference to the Department’s advertisement published on March 12,  it is for general information of all concerned that last date of submission of applications has been extended to May 31, 2011 in place of earlier advertised last  date i.e. April 25, 2011. All other conditions of the advertisement and  EOI remain unchanged,” the official notification by the Department said.

According to the original EOI, the consultant would assess the existing facilities in the country vis-à-vis requirements of pharma industry, gaps if any, and indicate the manner in which this gap could be filled in. Based on such assessment, the agency will draw up schemes for establishing labs or upgrading the existing facilities so as to make them GLP compliant laboratories or Large Animal Houses. “A combination of both of the above options may also be considered. The Schemes have to be drawn in PPP mode,” according to the tender.

The DoP had planned the scheme to help the companies to comply with the good laboratory practices that has been made mandatory from November 1, 2010. The laboratories were planned to be created in the clusters in different parts of the country.