by Jill Howard Church, Senior Editor Animals' Agenda
Email: [email protected]
A September 26 High Court injunction in Great Britain
has stanched the flow of information regarding a case hailed as "the
Watergate of the biotechnology industry" -- leaked documents purporting
to show that the xenotransplantation research conducted by Imutran Ltd.
is both cruel and misleading. An expose published in the Daily Express
Sept. 21-22, 2000, detailed how Imutran -- owned by the Swiss-based
pharmaceutical giant Novartis -- carried out hundreds of experiments
involving pig-to-primate
organ transplants over the past five years. The information contained in
hundreds of internal reports, memos, and other documents leaked to the
U.K. activist group Uncaged Campaigns (UC) by an anonymous source showed
how Imutran's public claims of research "progress" and humane animal
care contrasted sharply with its own accounts of animal suffering and
scientific fiascoes.
Stated the Express, "Imutran says the animals do not
suffer. But the laboratory technicians' own detailed records of the
animals post-transplant lives paint a different picture. One monkey
which had a pig heart attached to the blood vessels in its neck was seen
holding the transplant which was 'swollen red' and 'seeping yellow
fluid' for most of the last days of its life. Animals are described as
quiet, huddled, shivering, unsteady and in spasm. Some had swellings,
bruising or were seen with blood or puss seeping from wounds."
The Express also reported that Imutran's claims of being
close to human xenotransplant trials are based on selective reporting of
the degree to which the baboons' bodies rejected transplanted pig
hearts. Imutran data allegedly showed that "hyperacute rejection" of pig
organs was more problematic than the company publicly acknowledged.
Other allegations involved high death rates due to drug overdoses,
procedural errors, and the intercontinental transport of wild-caught
monkeys.
The September injunction temporarily halted
dissemination of confidential information contained in the leaked
documents, except for those portions already published in the Daily
Express. The injunction will stand until a full hearing is held, which
is scheduled for late November. Uncaged Campaigns was forced to pull its
report "Diaries of Deception" from its web site (www.xenodiaries.org),
but the group is appealing the ruling. Said UC Director Dan Lyons,
"Freedom of information about animal experimentation is one of the
cornerstones of democratic debate. It would have been more constructive
for Imutran/Novartis to engage in that debate, rather than attempt to
suppress it."
Britain's Home Office, which regulates experimentation,
is reviewing the case; UC is calling for a judicial inquiry. Meanwhile,
Novartis announced on the day of the injunction that it was closing
Imutran and merging with Massachusetts-based Biotransplant, Inc., which
will shift the bulk of the xenotransplantation research to the United
States. Its pig-to-primate experiments are already being done at the
University of Ohio, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of
Wisconsin, Stanford University, and Massachusetts General Hospital, with
support and funding from the National Institutes of Health and the
Department of Health and Human Services.
"Novartis basically wants to continue doing in the U.S.
what it was doing in Britain, and get away with it," noted Alix Fano,
director of the Campaign for Responsible Transplantation. "That is
unacceptable. The U.S. should not become a haven for cruel, wasteful,
and irresponsible research, particularly when better alternatives
exist."
�Reprinted with permission from The Animals� Agenda,
P.O. Box 25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; (410) 675-4566;
www.animalsagenda.org.�
Email:
[email protected]
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