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Monkeys Don’t Make Sense: Availability of Better Methods Means It’s Time for the NIH to Phase Out Primate Experiments
More than 100,000 nonhuman primates, including baboons, macaques, marmosets, and other monkeys, are held or used for research purposes in the United States each year. Many of these animals are used in research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which spends hundreds of millions of dollars bankrolling the National Primate Research Centers. The perception of nonhuman primates and their questionable effectiveness and sustainability when used in research is shifting, bringing us closer than ever to replacing these animals with more effective nonanimal methods.
Last month, the Physicians Committee submitted a comment to an NIH advisory council recommending a plan to phase out the National Primate Research Centers and the use of primates in medical research, turning instead to human-centered nonanimal approaches to further scientific progress.
Primates are used in many areas of NIH research, but biological differences make them a poor model for humans, leading to difficult and rare translation to human biological knowledge and clinical benefit. In contrast, nonanimal approaches use human cells, tissues, and data to replicate critical features of human biology and disease, avoiding species-specific translational barriers. These approaches are already widely used to reliably develop and test new therapies and replace the use of animals.
In September 2024, the advisory council voted to approve the National Primate Research Centers program, but not without some debate about its necessity and goals. One knowledgeable and discerning council member, Dr. Kevin Johnson, suggested that the program should dissuade inappropriate use of primates, that scientists would benefit from nonanimal method technology, and that one of the goals of the National Primate Research Centers should be “to not need National Primates Research Centers.”
In line with this suggestion, the Physicians Committee recommended that the NIH:
- Phase out the National Primate Research Centers and the use of primates in biomedical research,
- Phase in the use of human-centered nonanimal methods, and
- Consider the ethics for research involving primates more carefully.
There are many unknowns regarding how the new administration will approach the use of animals in research and testing, but one thing is for sure: The time is now to begin the significant shift away from expensive, wasteful, unethical, and ineffective primate research and toward methods that accelerate medical breakthroughs and solutions. The Physicians Committee will continue working to make this happen.
