MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2022) Scientists in the United States are facing delays of up to a year due to a shortage of lab monkeys, Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing industry experts.
According to the newspaper, academics are already struggling to meet the deadlines for their research over problems in sourcing so-called non-human primates (NHPs), which are, as per regulators, important to ensure drug safety at early stages of research.
China used to be the largest lab monkey supplier to the US before Beijing imposed a ban on NHP export in 2020, causing the price of animals to triple from 2019 to 2022. In 2023, the average price of lab monkeys is projected to rise to $30,000-$35,000, according to research by advisory firm Evercore ISI.
Remaining suppliers also warned investors that they expect disruptions in imports from Cambodia after Washington indicted several Cambodian government officials for smuggling NHPs to the US for research.
Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said that US scientists had never successfully bred "complex" monkeys without high mortality rates, pointing out that there were better research methods available besides animal-testing.
