"Experimental Monkey Prices Soar in New Drug Development"... China Ignores Bioethics

Monkey. As the price of experimental monkeys in China soars, causing a supply shortage, criticism arises that this goes against 'bioethics.' Photo by Getty Images Bank

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Se-eun] As the price of experimental monkeys in China soars, causing a supply shortage, criticism is emerging that China is going against the trend of emphasizing 'bioethics.'

The recent surge in the price of experimental monkeys in China is due to new drug companies competing to purchase monkeys, and the ban on importing wild animals due to COVID-19, which has led to a supply shortage compared to demand for monkeys.

According to the local Chinese media Hongxing News on the 10th, in April, Zhaoyan New Drug fully acquired the shares of experimental animal suppliers Yingmao Biology and Weimei Biology and incorporated them as subsidiaries.

Zhaoyan New Drug made this decision because the price of monkeys skyrocketed. The price of a monkey, which was 6,567 yuan (approximately 1.24 million KRW) in 2014, rose about 23 times to 160,000 yuan (about 30 million KRW) in eight years, leading them to judge that acquiring the entire supplier was better.

Professor Yang Zanchu of the Medical Department at Wuhan University in China explained, "The more contagious and damaging the disease is, the more clinical trial monkeys must be used during drug development," adding, "Since COVID-19, the demand for long-tailed monkeys has surged."

Some voices are criticizing China's approach.

In 2015, the U.S. National Institutes of Health retired 300 experimental chimpanzees, and the Netherlands also announced guidelines banning primate experiments, making 'bioethics' such as animal rights protection a long-standing topic in the pharmaceutical field.

In contrast, China showed a different approach from advanced countries by securing hundreds of thousands of experimental monkeys before signing the 'Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),' which effectively bans monkey trading.

Not only pharmaceutical companies but also the China Food and Drug Inspection Research Institute is taking action to secure monkeys, indicating government-level involvement.

According to the China Experimental Primate Development Association, there are currently about 240,000 experimental monkeys in China, and the number of monkeys available for research is confirmed to be about 100,000.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.