Quality management and GLP at the Central Animal Laboratory

​The personnel of the Central Animal Laboratory follows approved guidelines that comply with the quality management policy of the University of Turku. In addition, the Central Animal Laboratory follows the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) guidelines of the OECD, which involves all the operations of the Laboratory, care taking of the animals, research, facility maintenance, documentation, archiving etc. 

GLP – Good Laboratory Practice

GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) is a quality and documentation system of research required by the authorities in order to obtain the high quality and reliable test data related to the safety of industrial chemical substances and preparations in non-clinical studies. Due to the GLP status, it is mandatory that everybody who uses the facilities follows the GLP rules.

The OECD Guidelines for the testing of chemicals are followed in the Central Animal Laboratory to assess the safety of chemical products. The OECD principles are approved by GLP authorities as the most relevant internationally agreed testing methods.

According to GLP rules, all actions that take place in the Central Animal Laboratory (procedures in the facilities, documentation and archiving of activities) are described in details in SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure).

The facilities are routinely inspected by authorities from Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea) according to the national GLP Compliance Monitoring Programme, approximately every second year or more often. The main reason is to ensure that the operating instructions are put into practice.

Central Animal Laboratory has been inspected in regular basis by GLP authorities and has received the Statement of Good Laboratory Practice Compliance in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.