Zakir Hussein
INVC,,
Delhi,,
India is committed to a robust and transparent quality system in the critical area impacting human health and environment. Addressing an interactive meet on “India receiving Full Adherence Status on Good Lab Practice (GLP) from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Council, Shri Pawn Kumar Bansal, Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences and Parliamentary Affairs said here today that high standards maintained by Indian Test Facilities in terms of infrastructure, conduct of tests, reliability of results and robustness of internal audit systems already helped to obtain and retain GLP certificates from OECD countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland for more than two decades. Congratulating all those involved in achieving the OECD GLP full adherent status, the Minister emphasized that with this recognition comes a very great responsibility for the industry, the monitoring authority and the inspectors who play a critical role in on site monitoring. It is now imperative to build a strong GLP base in India by increasing the number of GLP certified test facilities. Presently, there is only one Government organization, viz NIPER, Mohali that has got a GLP certificate. There is, therefore need to enthuse and empower select Government institutions to come up to the standards of OECD GLP in order to encourage Indian trade in the sectors of Chemicals, Paints, Bio-tech & Food and allied areas.
Referring to open market economy and WTO regime, the Minister said India has opportunity to increase its size of exports, provided we conform to global quality standards to eliminate any technical barriers under the WTO regime. Indian Pharmaceutical products, pesticides products and industrial chemicals, veterinary drugs, medical equipments, food and feed additives have witnessed a substantial growth in exports in the last five years. Compliance with the OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) will assure the regulatory bodies of the quality & integrity of data generated by the laboratories or Test Facilities.
