In a major boost for Pharma industry, scientists and medical universities, India is all set to have its first ever National Animal Resource facility for biomedical research which will have animals of defined quality that will help obtain reliable results for vaccine development. At present there is no such facility in the country, forcing pharma giants to conduct research in other countries, which is very expensive. The new breeding facility to be set up in Andhra Pradesh (AP) is expected to have primates, beagle dogs and other large animals which are as of now not available in India.
The department of health research under the Union health ministry has already been allocated 100 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh for the novel laboratory, which according to experts will pave way for development of more efficient prophylactic vaccines and curative drugs for diseases like AIDS, Malaria, Hepatitis-C etc. “Medical development will continue to depend on laboratory animal research. Keeping in view the threat that we have from diseases like AIDS, SARS, dengue chikungunya etc such a facility will definitely a boon for the country,” said a senior official in the health ministry.
The Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on animals (CPCSEA) under the ministry of environment and forests do not allow animals caught from wild for experimentation, leaving the industry to go to other countries for experimenting on animals of defined quality like Specific Pathogen Free (SPF).