The last few decadeshave seen a rise in the development and regulations surrounding nonanimal and human-relevant technologies such as microphysiological systems (MPS), computational, and systems approach to drug discovery globally. While there has been an exponential increase in the interest and use of human-relevant methods, particularly MPS models in India, there have also been significant impediments to sustaining this research. Last year, CPHMS had held a round table with MPS technology developers from academia and industry who proposed several suggestions to take this technology from the lab to the market/ end-users.

To take these suggestions further, we recently held a second roundtable meeting, this time with participants from Government bodies (Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology; Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR), regulatory bodies (Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, IPC, and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, CDSCO), pharma companies (Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Biological E Ltd, Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd., Reagene Pvt. Ltd.), and technology developers in academia and industry.

This was a first-of-its-kind multi-stakeholder meeting to enable indigenous development and sustained funding for human-relevant technologies, specifically MPS models in India.