Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5975272.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
March 25, 2009
Crucial medical research 'threatened' by EU animal welfare plan
Mark Henderson, Science Editor
Important medical research into conditions such as autism, Parkinson?s disease, strokes and Aids will be ?closed down? if a European Union directive on animal experiments is passed in its present form, leading scientists said today.
Vital studies of brain and cell function that promise new therapies for serious disorders would be blocked by the proposed regulations, turning Europe into a ?scientific backwater?, a coalition of major research organisations warned.
The directive also threatens European countries? capacity to defend against a flu pandemic. It would bring hen?s eggs, which are critical to flu vaccine production, under the scope of vivisection regulations, creating costs and red tape that could force vaccine manufacture out of Europe.
The proposals from the European Commission and the European Parliament would create huge new bureaucratic burdens for scientists without creating benefits for animal welfare, and would sometimes increase suffering, the experts said.
The new EU rules would impose stringent restrictions on monkey experiments that would in effect ban research designed to improve the understanding of neurological conditions and infectious diseases.
Plankton, shrimp larvae and crabs would be given the same protection now accorded to rodents, even though there is no evidence that these animals feel pain, and there are unscientific standards for cage sizes that in some cases are ?actively deleterious to welfare?.
Nine British research groups, including the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), today issued a ?declaration of concern? about revision to Directive 86/609.
The European Science Foundation, the European Medical Research Councils and the prestigious Pasteur Institute in France have also protested about its contents, before a European Parliament debate that begins next week.
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, Europe?s largest biomedical research charity, said that the directive ?would simply close down some aspects of medical research that can only be addressed by animal models. It will increase the costs of research and the bureaucracy of research, and I?m afraid we think it will bring little or no benefit for animal welfare at all.?
One of the chief concerns is a clause that bars the use of non-human primates in fundamental research, designed to investigate basic brain or immune system functions rather than to test new therapies for particular diseases. Primate experiments would be allowed only if they directly examined ?life-threatening or debilitating? conditions.
This would have blocked studies that have transformed understanding of the brain, such as the discovery of cells called mirror neurons that are involved in autism.
Roger Lemon, Professor of Neurophysiology at University College London, said: ?Article 8 very clearly stipulates that primates cannot be used in basic research. Any research that makes fundamental contributions to understanding the brain would be ruled out. Our understanding of autism has been hugely advanced by the discovery of the mirror neuron system in macaque monkeys. That kind of discovery could never be made under the vastly more restrictive environment that would be created by this directive.
Page 2 of 2
?Blocking basic research in non-human primates would seriously impair future progress and render the EU a scientific backwater in modern research.? Primate research with implications for Parkinson?s disease, strokes, malaria and HIV-Aids would also suffer, Professor Lemon said.
Tim Hammond, of the drug company AstraZeneca and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said that the extension of animal regulations to cover eggs would be disastrous for vaccine production. ?It would encourage companies to move outside the EU, which would give us real issues in terms of access to vaccines in a flu pandemic,? he said.
Sophie Petit-Zeman, of the AMRC, said that the Commission and the European Parliament had ignored patients? views on the importance of animal research. When the AMRC organised a delegation to lobby MEPs on the issue last year, five turned up and three left before the end of the session.
?As it stands, the directive looks set to make some good contributions to animal welfare, but includes some proposals that defy belief,? she said. ?On behalf of our member charities and the people they are there to help, we need to push the European Parliament to take a long hard look at the directive so that research for patient benefit doesn?t get tangled up in absurd, illogical piles of red tape.?
The directive is intended to update regulations that are more than 20 years old and are widely agreed to be out of date. The scientific groups accept some of its measures, such as processes for ensuring the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal experiments where possible.
The draft new directive was published by the Commission last November, and a European Parliament committee will vote on amendments next Tuesday. Its final form will be agreed next year by the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, and once it has been passed states will have up to two years to implement it.
Sir Mark said: ?We will have to work very hard to try to ensure that the directive is passed in the best possible form. If it comes out unaltered, national governments have to implement it and great harm would have to be done.?
Animal rights groups urged MEPs to resist the campaign to amend the draft directive. Emily McIvor, policy director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, said: ?The revision of Directive 86/609 is a great opportunity for Europe to genuinely make a better deal for animals in laboratories.?
March 25, 2009
Crucial medical research 'threatened' by EU animal welfare plan
Mark Henderson, Science Editor
Important medical research into conditions such as autism, Parkinson?s disease, strokes and Aids will be ?closed down? if a European Union directive on animal experiments is passed in its present form, leading scientists said today.
Vital studies of brain and cell function that promise new therapies for serious disorders would be blocked by the proposed regulations, turning Europe into a ?scientific backwater?, a coalition of major research organisations warned.
The directive also threatens European countries? capacity to defend against a flu pandemic. It would bring hen?s eggs, which are critical to flu vaccine production, under the scope of vivisection regulations, creating costs and red tape that could force vaccine manufacture out of Europe.
The proposals from the European Commission and the European Parliament would create huge new bureaucratic burdens for scientists without creating benefits for animal welfare, and would sometimes increase suffering, the experts said.
The new EU rules would impose stringent restrictions on monkey experiments that would in effect ban research designed to improve the understanding of neurological conditions and infectious diseases.
Plankton, shrimp larvae and crabs would be given the same protection now accorded to rodents, even though there is no evidence that these animals feel pain, and there are unscientific standards for cage sizes that in some cases are ?actively deleterious to welfare?.
Nine British research groups, including the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), today issued a ?declaration of concern? about revision to Directive 86/609.
The European Science Foundation, the European Medical Research Councils and the prestigious Pasteur Institute in France have also protested about its contents, before a European Parliament debate that begins next week.
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, Europe?s largest biomedical research charity, said that the directive ?would simply close down some aspects of medical research that can only be addressed by animal models. It will increase the costs of research and the bureaucracy of research, and I?m afraid we think it will bring little or no benefit for animal welfare at all.?
One of the chief concerns is a clause that bars the use of non-human primates in fundamental research, designed to investigate basic brain or immune system functions rather than to test new therapies for particular diseases. Primate experiments would be allowed only if they directly examined ?life-threatening or debilitating? conditions.
This would have blocked studies that have transformed understanding of the brain, such as the discovery of cells called mirror neurons that are involved in autism.
Roger Lemon, Professor of Neurophysiology at University College London, said: ?Article 8 very clearly stipulates that primates cannot be used in basic research. Any research that makes fundamental contributions to understanding the brain would be ruled out. Our understanding of autism has been hugely advanced by the discovery of the mirror neuron system in macaque monkeys. That kind of discovery could never be made under the vastly more restrictive environment that would be created by this directive.
Page 2 of 2
?Blocking basic research in non-human primates would seriously impair future progress and render the EU a scientific backwater in modern research.? Primate research with implications for Parkinson?s disease, strokes, malaria and HIV-Aids would also suffer, Professor Lemon said.
Tim Hammond, of the drug company AstraZeneca and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said that the extension of animal regulations to cover eggs would be disastrous for vaccine production. ?It would encourage companies to move outside the EU, which would give us real issues in terms of access to vaccines in a flu pandemic,? he said.
Sophie Petit-Zeman, of the AMRC, said that the Commission and the European Parliament had ignored patients? views on the importance of animal research. When the AMRC organised a delegation to lobby MEPs on the issue last year, five turned up and three left before the end of the session.
?As it stands, the directive looks set to make some good contributions to animal welfare, but includes some proposals that defy belief,? she said. ?On behalf of our member charities and the people they are there to help, we need to push the European Parliament to take a long hard look at the directive so that research for patient benefit doesn?t get tangled up in absurd, illogical piles of red tape.?
The directive is intended to update regulations that are more than 20 years old and are widely agreed to be out of date. The scientific groups accept some of its measures, such as processes for ensuring the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal experiments where possible.
The draft new directive was published by the Commission last November, and a European Parliament committee will vote on amendments next Tuesday. Its final form will be agreed next year by the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, and once it has been passed states will have up to two years to implement it.
Sir Mark said: ?We will have to work very hard to try to ensure that the directive is passed in the best possible form. If it comes out unaltered, national governments have to implement it and great harm would have to be done.?
Animal rights groups urged MEPs to resist the campaign to amend the draft directive. Emily McIvor, policy director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, said: ?The revision of Directive 86/609 is a great opportunity for Europe to genuinely make a better deal for animals in laboratories.?