Shots - Health Blog Thu December 15, 2011 Biomedical Research
Using Chimps Should Be Curtailed Updated 1:30 p.m.: The National
Institutes of Health accepts the recommendations of the
Institute of Medicine report on chimpanzee research, NIH
Director Dr. Francis Collins said in a statement. "We will not
issue any new awards for research involving chimpanzees until
processes for implementing the recommendations are in place," he
said. Most of the biomedical research currently being done on
chimpanzees is unnecessary and the need for chimps in medical
studies will soon decline even further, according to a highly-
anticipated new report from an independent panel of experts. The
report says that the National Institutes of Health should only
allow experiments on chimps if a new set of strict criteria are
met, and recommends setting up an independent oversight
committee that includes members of the public. "The bottom line
is, the necessity of chimpanzees is diminishing. We were able to
only identify two areas of biom