The Global Central Laboratory operation of France’s Eurofins food, pharmaceutical and environmental testing group has opened a new central laboratory in Bangalore, India as part of its support network for clinical trials worldwide.
The ‘Knowledge Hub’ in Bangalore gives Eurofins Global Central Laboratory a total of three central laboratories in the Asia Pacific region.The global central laboratory network now includes wholly-owned facilities in India, the United States, Europe, Singapore and China. The network supports clinical trials in more than 50 countries spanning six continents.
Equipment, procedures and standards are harmonised across the network. “The Bangalore facility operates like an extension of the other Eurofins central labs, as all laboratory equipment, methods, operating procedures and quality standards are identical to those in our sister laboratories,” explained new laboratory director Dr. Raghavendra Karanth.
“Sponsors can expect similar results in India, with the benefit of having a reduced cost of transportation to either Europe or the United States,” Karanth added.
International accreditation
The Bangalore central laboratory offers a full package of safety and biomarker testing. It has Level 1 accreditation from the US-based National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) for heamoglobin A1c testing, and should achieve NABL and CAP accreditations within its first year of operation, Eurofins said.
NABL is the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, an autonomous body under the Indian government’s Department of Science & Technology. CAP is the College of American Pathologists, which runs an internationally recognised laboratory accreditation programme.
The location of the new facility in Bangalore also gives it easy access to India’s transport infrastructure, enabling close control of transportation and maintenance of specimen integrity, Eurofins noted.
