Victory: Indala Institute of Pharmacy Partners With PETA India to End Tests on Animals

In a groundbreaking move, Indala Institute of Pharmacy has signed an agreement pledging to end all experiments on animals formerly required in its pharmacology education classes in favour of advanced, human-relevant methods. The school is now using the virtual simulation software Ex-Pharm, provided free of charge by PETA India in partnership with the Bureau For Health And Education Status Upliftment, New Delhi. The decision follows conversations with PETA India about the superiority of animal-free research and education methods.  

The interactive software allows pharmacology students to conduct experiments using computer-assisted learning methods while sparing the lives of countless mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and other animals who may be forced to inhale or consume chemicals, be deliberately infected with diseases, be mutilated, and then killed via suffocation or neck dislocation. Previously, Indala Institute of Pharmacy used approximately 40 albino rats per year in postgraduate student research studies for antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, toxicity, and bioavailability experiments.  

The decision is in keeping with guidelines set forth by the National Medical Commission, which revised its requirements for postgraduate pharmacology curricula in 2022 to recommend the use of several non-animal teaching and training methods and to no longer make certain routine laboratory experiments on animals mandatory. 

Research shows that a significant number of students at every educational level are uncomfortable with the use of animals for dissection and experimentation, and some even turn away from scientific careers rather than violate their principles. In addition, computer software programmes can be used repeatedly, which saves time and money and helps maintain ecological balance by sparing animals. 

“Indala Institute of Pharmacy greatly appreciates PETA India for donating Ex-Pharm simulation software that allows us to replace experiments on animals in our undergraduate and postgraduate educational curricula while also enhancing the quality of learning for our students.”

– Dr Vaibhav V Kulkarni, principal, Indala Institute of Pharmacy

PETA India scientists have developed the groundbreaking Research Modernisation Deal: a road map for strategically optimising India’s investment in research to cure diseases by ending funding for strategies that don’t work, including experiments and education using animals, and instead directing resources towards research that’s relevant to humans, such as accelerating the uptake of advanced technology that outperforms animal-based methods. PETA India is calling on the government to embrace this plan to reform the broken medical research system.  

Please sign our petition to show your support for The Research Modernisation Deal and request that the prime minister work to establish a clear policy mandating an end to animal experimentation and provide a strategy and timeline for achieving this goal: