An ongoing shortage of monkeys used in scientific and medical experiments is about to get worse, as fallout continues from a federal investigation into an alleged primate-smuggling ring in Cambodia.
Several major companies are warning of supply constraints, delays and higher prices that they say could eventually lead to bottlenecks in drug testing. However, industry analysts have expressed skepticism that the situation in Cambodia will have major impacts on research, with one saying “this is just going to be another handful of sand in the gears.”
Nonhuman primates are used to test experimental drugs and vaccines before they enter human trials, and to probe fundamental questions about the aging brain and infectious diseases. Nationally funded primate research centers maintain domestic colonies for biomedical research, but about 30,000 are imported each year to meet demand.
In full: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/03/01/monkeys-cambodia-research/
