Princeton, NJ, USA — Envigo has announced that its Research Models and Services (RMS) facility in Hyderabad, India has been granted full accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International Council. In a letter to Envigo, AAALAC notified the company that it had met all the conditions required for full accreditation and commended the high quality facility and expertise of its people.

This is the first accreditation of Envigo sites in 2017 and the sixth in total since the launch of the new company in 2015. The award demonstrates ongoing progress towards Envigo’s goal to have all of its European and Asian research models sites accredited by AAALAC. All of Envigo’s US sites are already AAALAC accredited.

The isolator breeding facility in Hyderabad was purpose-built in 2015 and boasts state-of-the-art equipment and technologies, ventilation systems, and automated water systems to assure the highest standards of animal welfare, quality, biosecurity, and employee safety. Envigo has made several of its key rodents strains available in India, including high volume models used in oncology research, such as the NOD.CB17-Prkdcscid/NCrHsd, Hsd:Athymic Nude-Foxn1nu and the C.B-17/IcrHsd-PrkdcscidLystbg-J. The Envigo facility also supports Indian biomedical and biopharmaceutical researchers with a variety of inbred mouse models to advance their studies. Such models include the BALB/cOlaHsd and the C57BL/6JRccHsd.

AAALAC commended Envigo’s Indian facility for providing and maintaining a high quality program of laboratory animal care and use, well qualified employees, dedicated engineering and maintenance teams, and highly engaged IACUC (IAEC) members. The cleanliness and maintenance of the facilities were also praised by inspectors.

John Handley, President of EMEA Operations commented: “I am delighted that our team and facility in India have been recognized by the industry-leading AAALAC accreditation. The quality of care and expertise at Hyderabad facility were highlighted by the auditors – a testament to the professionalism of our employees who work in partnership with customers around the world to advance research that makes the world a safer and healthier place.  As non-clinical development continues to proliferate on a global basis, it is important for our local and Western customers to have access to high quality, proven research models to conduct their research in Asia. Having gained AAALAC accreditation, the new Indian facility will help serve that industry need.”