Are GCP and GLP the same?

No — GCP (Good Clinical Practice) and GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) are not the same, even though both are essential quality systems in biomedical research. GLP governs non-clinical laboratory studies, such as toxicology, pharmacology, and safety testing, which are performed before a drug is tested on humans. It ensures data integrity, traceability, and reproducibility. GCP, on the other hand, applies to clinical trials involving human subjects. It defines ethical and scientific standards for designing, conducting, and reporting clinical studies to protect participants and ensure credible results.

In simple terms, GLP ensures that preclinical data are reliable enough to justify testing a product in humans, while GCP guarantees that those human trials are conducted safely and ethically. Both systems are part of a continuum that supports drug development and regulatory approval, but they apply to different stages of the process — GLP before, and GCP during, clinical testing.