Change in Govt policy saves Animals from Toxicity Testing

Pashu Sandesh, 03 Aug 2020

CORONA is wreaking havoc in the World and like all other countries, India is also racing against time to develop its own lives saving COVID19 Vaccine. Development of Vaccine is not a simple process and it has to undergo stringent safety tests before it is approved and considered safe for the use in Humans. To confirm the safety of the vaccine there are toxicity tests being conducted on the Animals especially small ones such as rats and guinea pigs. In the process, a large number of animals die or otherwise euthanised which from an animal lover point of view is a cruel and futile exercise. But this was a mandatory exercise as mandated by the regulatory authorities. Now with the new Government order, the animals can have a new lease of life. 

The change follows a recent amendment to the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). The IP is a compilation of official standards of drugs being made or marketed in India, brought out by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, an autonomous institution under the Health Ministry. In 2018, the Commission made several updates to the Indian Pharmacopeia, including suggestions from animal welfare groups. It also included provisions for companies with certified good manufacturing practices to waive this test for human vaccines, upon approval by the National Regulatory Agency.

At the IPC’s seventh group meeting of experts in April 2019, the proposal to remove this test from the inpidual monographs of human vaccines was accepted and the amendment came into existence from July 22, 2020, when the amendment was published.