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The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has circulated a request from the animal rights organisation against Forced Swim Test - dropping small animals into inescapable tanks of water as part of experiment - to the pharmacy institutions in the country for necessary action.
The measure is following a letter from Dr Anjana Aggarwal, Science Policy Advisor of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, from Maharashtra who extended the plea stating that the test is not scientifically credible, deliberately cruel and has been abandoned or banned by most of major pharmaceutical companies, several academic institutions, and government jurisdictions.
The Council forwarded the letter to the pharmacy institutions stating that it is self explanatory and is for necessary action from their (institutions) end.
"The forced swim test, also known as the Porsolt swim test, involves dropping small animals, such as mice and rats, into inescapable tanks of water. Some experimenters claim that when animals spend more time floating (as opposed to trying to escape), they’re more “depressed”—despite evidence to the contrary—and often use the test in an attempt to model human depression or test antidepressant drugs. In reality, the forced swim test is not scientifically credible and is deliberately cruel," said the letter from PETA India.
"It has already been abandoned or banned outright by most of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies and a number of academic institutions and government jurisdictions," said the organisation. It also shared a 2022 report on the invalidity of the forced swim test, "for evidence detailing scientific and ethical considerations supporting a move away from this flawed experiment".
In the Indian context, it added, there is a growing awareness and concern for the ethical treatment of animals and PCI can lead the way in adopting humane and progressive research practices.
"We acknowledge the positive strides India has made in recognizing animal welfare as a significant aspect of scientific research and encourage Pharmacy Council of India to be at the forefront of this ethical shift. Such a commitment not only aligns with evolving ethical norms in scientific research but also sets a positive precedent for other institutions to follow," added PETA India.
The Association added that major companies including Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Astrea Therapeutics, Roche Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, NutriFusion and DSM Nutritional Products have either banned or discontinued the test between 2018 and 2021.
The Australian Research Council and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council prohibited funding any experiments that use the test, while AgResearch, a New Zealand government research institute that oversees the use of animals in experimentation for more than 40 other institutions in the country, revised its legally-binding code of conduct to state that its ethics committees "will not consider an application" that includes FST, it added.
Several educational institutions, including 12 UK-based research universities, three medical research funding charities, universities in Australia and Colombia, among others also said that either they have not been using the test or no longer use the test or fund experiments involving the FST.
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