India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Toxicology took birth in India with the establishment of Agricultural Universities and the Indian Toxicology Research Centre (IITR) Lucknow (formerly known as Industrial Toxicology Research Centre) in 1960’s.To enhance human, animal and environmental health through the science of toxicology, he Society of Toxicology of India (STOX) was established in 1979.
The core purpose of STOX is mass awareness in public about the use and misuse of pesticides, drugs, chemicals present in food. STOX is a charter member of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) since 1980. Since 1979 STOX has organized conferences and annual meeting regularly and the 2nd Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries in 1991-92. For the exchange of scientific information STOX has started an official Toxicology Journal called “Toxicology International” in 1993 (formerly known as Indian Journal of Tocicology) which is published twice a year. Veterinary Colleges and IITR are the premiere toxicology research Colleges research institutes in the country. In addition there are several Universities and Research organizations such as Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, CCS University, Meerut, Dyalbagh Univesity, Agra, Post-graduate Institute of Basic Medical Education, Chennai, etc ve produced a good number of MSc / MVSc and Ph.D.’s in toxicology in the country. Several veterinary colleges in India offer post graduate training in Pharmacology and Toxicology which constitutes and contributes the bulk of toxicologists in the country.
The same veterinary colleges also offer postgraduate training in Veterinary Pathology who ultimately end up in toxico-pathology assessment in most Pharma/biotech companies and Contract Research Organizations (CRO’s) in India. As of this writing, we have about 25 plus CRO’s/companies which have toxicology laboratories which have the Indian Good laboratory Practices (GLP) certificate. As of March 2011, India as a country has entered the full status of Organization of Economic Community and Development (OECD) for Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD); this means any data generated in an Indian GLP toxicology lab will automatically be accepted by all 34 OECD countries around the world.With the growth of GLP CRO’s in the country, there was a need of Board certified toxicologists in the country. With the assistance of Dr. K.S. Rao, who spent 40-years in US, the American Board of Toxicology (ABT) has initiated offering the ABT examination in Bangalore, India, since 2008. As of now, we have 30 candidates from India who have passed the DABT examination from India and we expect this number to increase exponentially increase in due course of time. In order for India and Indian toxicology labs to make an impact on the global scene we need more experienced and mechanistic toxicologists which are lacking. In addition, we need a good source of professional rodent breeding facilities and indigenous certified rodent diets/bedding. Infrastructure of animal facilities also needs improvement to global standards. Nevertheless, many of the existing toxicology labs do conduct good quality regulatory toxicology work which complies with OECD and FDA guidance. It is hoped that with increased investment in improving animal facilities and improving and increasing the number of qualified mechanistic toxicologists, we can expect Indian CRO’s can be a source of outsourcing work for foreign drug/biotech companies.
