Exposing the Pharmaceutical Industry's Interest in Animal Research

In the United States, we are in the midst of a health care debate in which the pharmaceutical industry disguises itself as a champion of the people. It is funding stealth organizations that support "patients' choices" and that assist in organized mob disruptions of town hall meetings. This is all a big charade to keep our health care system unchanged and their pharma profits high.

Big pharma is also involved in promoting animal research for its own benefit. It claims that it must research on animals in order to save people, but then charges such high costs for drugs to these same people that many, even in the rich country of the US, must forego them and risk their lives. But I thought people came first with these guys.

But animal research is necessary, they also claim, because there are simply no other alternatives. Come on, does big pharma really want to spend the money on alternatives to animal research? That would cost money and eat into their profits. It's so much cheaper to buy, use and dispose of a bunch of voiceless chimpanzees and thousands of rats than to invest in alternative R&D.

Here's an opinion piece in the Guardian that is another good refutation of pro-animal research arguments. The author also accuses Understanding Animal Research of being a UK front group for the pharmaceutical industry.

Malaysian Firm to Establish New Animal Testing Facility

The stupid project is in partnership with a French pharmaceutical company. Fortunately, there are Malaysian activists opposing it. But of course, the argument will be that the project is economic development, jobs and "for the good of humanity."

Chimps Helping Humans Again - Whether They Want to Or Not

Interesting article about the apparent ability of chimps to self-medicate and science's attempts to co-opt their knowledge to make pharmaceutical drugs (and money!)

Ugandan and French scientists have for months been observing the behaviour of a group of chimpanzees whose uncanny aptitude for self-medication could help their human cousins discover new drugs.

The great apes' ability to treat ailments by adjusting their diet has long been observed by scientists, including world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, but a project in Uganda's Kibale forest offers a unique opportunity for pharmaceutical research.

"It's the first time that a chimpanzee observation aimed at discovering new medicine for humans is conducted within a scientific framework," said Sabrina Krief, a French veterinary and professor at the Paris National History Museum....

The key moment in the observation is when one among the group of around 50 chimps she monitors gets sick.

The primate's choice of food -- what he pulls out of his medicine chest -- is packed with information that could lead the scientists to new discoveries.

"We want to compare which plants are used by the traditional healers or traditional practitioners, and the medicines used by chimpanzees. Is there a relation for the kind of treatment they go for?," Kasenene said.

"What is surprising to me is that these chimps have no chemist, no lab... They simply move in and collect plants and eventually find themselves getting cured," the 27-year-old marvelled. "It's a proof that they are very close to us."

I'm a cynic and I know it. As soon as I read this article, which should have been inspiring, here was my first thought, "Here we go again....science admiring and leaching off the ingrained knowledge of animals, only to later disavow their similarity to humans and stick them in labs."

As long as their freedom serves our benefit, we keep them in the wild. As soon as our needs require their sacrifice, all bets are off.

Photo by emeybee.