Doctors’ Nonprofit Raises Alarm Over Financial Burden and Rising Costs for Patients Ahead of OHSU-Legacy Merger

PORTLAND—Considering the Oregon Health and Science University’s long history of federal Animal Welfare Act violations and useless experiments, doctors at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine want to see OHSU’s notorious primate research facility closed before Governor Tina Kotek approves the anticipated takeover of Legacy Health by OHSU.

The Physicians Committee, a national nonprofit with more than 17,000 doctor members, is calling on Oregonians to contact both Gov. Kotek and Oregon Health Authority, the state agency reviewing the merger, to voice their concerns. Ahead of the public push, Neal Barnard, MD, founder and president of the Physicians Committee wrote to OHA’s Community Review Board, asking that the board consider the federal administration’s intention to shrink federal research spending, as the primate center is currently funded by an NIH grant, making it an enormous financial liability that could result in increased costs for patients.

Founded in 1962, when research needs were very different, OHSU’s primate experimentation facility is located in Beaverton and houses more than 5,000 monkeys. Between 2014 and 2022, OHSU's primate facility violated the federal Animal Welfare Act more than 30 times—more than any of the other National Primate Research Centers. Records also show that infant monkeys have been torn away from their mothers and used in experiments designed to make them afraid. Pregnant monkeys have been injected with nicotine to damage their unborn babies. In 2020, an employee “inadvertently” scalded two monkeys to death in a washing system because he didn’t see them in the cage.

“Given OHSU’s current financial challenges and the anticipated reduction in federal funding, OHSU must prioritize patient care over this unnecessary and gut-wrenching animal experimentation,” says Michael Metzler, MD, PhD, of The Dalles. “OHSU’s troubling history of animal welfare violations has already undermined public trust, and continuing down this path will only erode it further.”

A Portland-based physician who attended medical school at OHSU, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated: “"This is a pivotal moment for health care, with declining reimbursements and rising costs driving many hospital mergers. Now more than ever, we must eliminate wasteful spending so that patients can receive the care they need at a price they can afford."

In 2015, Harvard University closed its New England Primate Research Center after a consistent pattern of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. University officials cited “limited resources” as a key factor when they announced the decision to shut down the facility.

In contrast to animal experimentation, modern and versatile human-relevant methods, such as tissue chips, organoids, computational modeling, and high-throughput screening, have proven effective in drug development and disease modeling.

To see copies of the letters to OHA or to interview Dr. Metzler, please contact Reina Pohl at 202-527-7326 or rpohl [at] pcrm.org (rpohl[at]pcrm[dot]org).