17 January 2007
Dear activists, especially Jill Robinson of AnimalsAsia.org:
Where animal experimentation is concerned, this is about as bad as a
piece of news can get. It will call for a whole new strategy.
There is only one very thin silver lining - AETA may not reach as far
as the animal enterprises in China and India. But then again, the evil
driving force still originates from here.
Anthony
Fur World Magazine
January 8, 2007
Now animal testing will be out-sourced To China and India.
Saying animal activism is creating economic problems for laboratories
in the U.S. that use animals in medical and drug research, Glenn Rice,
chief executive of Bridge Pharmaceuticals of San Francisco has begun
outsourcing the work to China, where he has found scientists are plentiful
and inexpensive.
He also discovered that aggressive activists, viewed as law breakers
there, are dealt with quickly and convincingly. There is an organization
in Beijing called The Chinese Association for Protection of Small Animals,
and its director, Lu Di, 75, says she views animal testing as
inevitable, and her group is focused on encouraging laboratories and
universities to use the most humane methods in handling their primates and
dogs.
Rice has established a facility in Beijing's Zhongguancun Life Sciences
Park, which is becoming a world center for biotechnology, and says this
kind of work goes along with the goals of the Chinese government, which
has heard the expression "The race to the bottom," and wants to make new
ventures about quality rather than quantity. So much so that it gave him
many incentives, including a five-year tax holiday.
Rice now commutes weekly between San Francisco and Beijing, and says
there are so many advantages that he expects drug giants like Pfizer,
Novartis, Eli Lily and Roche to follow suit.
"We can do the work for about half what it costs in the U.S. or
Europe,' Rice explained, "and there is an ample supply of necessary
animals.
Lower costs means we can also work on treatments or cures for the
so-called orphan diseases that affect small numbers of people and for
which research hitherto has not been cost effective."
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