Frontier Mediville gets green signal for animal research facility.

Frontier Mediville has got the Environment Ministry's green signal to start small and large animal housing facilities for research purposes, said KM Cherian, Chairman and Chief Executive of Frontier Lifeline Hospital, adding that it could well be the largest such facility in the country.

It would be able to house over 90 beagle-type dogs, 100 pigs, 100 sheep and 100 buffaloes, Cherian told Business Line, against the backdrop of the facility getting its approval from the CPCSEA or the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals.

The early stages in developing a medicine involve testing the prospective drug on small and large animals for toxicity, among other things. The small animals include mice, rabbits and guinea pigs, while the large ones include beagles and monkeys, for example.

But research on animals is an emotive issue, as pro-health and animal-rights groups call for the animals to be housed under better conditions and over shorter periods of time, besides bringing under intense scrutiny the number of small and large animals used in research. In fact, they urge researchers to explore humane scientific alternatives in the interest of good science.

HBL