FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday / April 23, 2002

Contact: Michael Budkie, SAEN research analyst, 513-575-5517

Cincinnati Group Releases NIH Audit -

Redundant Animal Testing Costs Taxpayers $1 Million an Hour

 

CINCINNATI – A Cincinnati-based group released an independent audit of the National Institutes of Health expenditures for animal research today, indicating a massive "waste" of tax money – perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars annually – on redundant studies often duplicated in scores of laboratories.

The audit estimates the cost to taxpayers for the wasteful spending at $1 million an hour every day of the year.

The audit, entitled "The Animal Experimentation Scandal," was released Tuesday (4/23/02). It was authored by Michael Budkie, a national research analyst with Cincinnati-based SAEN. The audit is available upon request and can be found at
http://www.all-creatures.org/wlalw/report-anexp-pdf.html .

Mr. Budkie, in the report, details examples where the same, exact research – all funded by the NIH – is being duplicated in hundreds of different labs.

In one example, there are 450 NIH grants studying cocaine use in rats, mice or macaque monkeys at a cost to taxpayers of more than $130 million a year. In another study of neural information processing, there are nearly 200 identical NIH-funded projects costing millions yearly.

Mr. Budkie notes that the numbers of experiments on animals that are duplicated excessively is increasing. As of 2001, NIH-funded research on animals included about 30,000 separate projects at a cost of $8.5 billion. That's in increase, Mr. Budkie said, of more than 18 percent since 1997 and 37.3 percent since 1991.

"A radical restructuring of the NIH grant approval system, and the Animal Care & Use Committee system are necessary to prevent further waste of federal tax dollars," said Mr. Budkie.

He called for Congress to commission a General Accounting Office audit of the NIH grant system, and correlate research contract data to examine the issue of duplication within the NIH.
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