Sri Ramachandra Medical University in Chennai has been awarded the prestigious Good Laboratory Practice Certification (GLP) for its Preclinical Toxicology Centre (CEFT).

From now, the data generated by the Centre will be accepted by regulatory authorities all over the world. The recognition is for a period of three years from September 2014.

With this, the University has become the first medical university in India to have the credit and OECD principles compliance, sources informed.

According to university sources, the toxicology centre is a state-of-the-art preclinical facility designed, developed and licensed by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA). It will perform toxicological and genetic-toxicological investigation of pharmaceutical products on small animals like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits and conduct various in-vitro toxicological tests.

The Centre has 12 sections including quarantine area, holding rooms and experimental rooms with separate sections for clinical chemistry and pathology. The experimental animals are housed in well controlled environment with temperature 19-23°C, relative humidity 45-65 per cent with 12-15 complete air-exchanges per hour filtered through 5 micron-filters. The centre is manned by research scientists with rich experiences in toxicological sciences, and technicians and animal care-takers.

The facility was inspected by the National Good Laboratory Practice Compliance Monitoring Authority (NGCMA), under Department of Science and Technology, for its adherence to OECD principles and Good Laboratory Practices in toxicological investigations. The uniqueness of the Centre is that it can test and certify both industry products as well as R&D products developed by researchers of universities for the purpose of commercialisation and licensing.