Carry on with monkey business as usual 鈥� that鈥檚 the conclusion of an independent UK inquiry into the use of non-human primates in research.
鈥淭here is a scientific case for careful, meticulously regulated non-human primate research, at least for the foreseeable future, provided it is the only way of solving important scientific or medical questions,鈥� says inquiry chairman David Weatherall of the University of Oxford. 杏吧原创s should try to reduce the use of primates, but research must continue, especially in neuroscience and infectious disease, says the report, published in London on 12 December.
It also answers claims made last week by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection that 30 vaccines now in human trials against HIV are doomed to failure because monkeys used in their development don鈥檛 grow ill from the virus. The report rejects that as premature, pointing out that only one of the vaccines has been fully tested on humans 鈥� though without success. Two others are in clinical trials, but none of the other 27 has yet gone beyond safety trials, so it is unfair to write them off, the report says.
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