Secrets of HLS - Pls Share & Discuss with Others

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" Three centuries searching for the holy grail " -- how much of our

precious research dollars are being wasted on these cruel Mengele-

like experiments. Please read this previously hidden information and

have a discussion with family members and friends this week about

constructive options that might better protect human health and

longevity.

 

For more information on the perils of animal testing and

xenotransplantation, review these sites:

 

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Exposed: secrets of the animal organ lab

 

Scientists' success in Cambridgeshire could have saved thousands of

lives. But they failed, animals suffered and the truth was covered

up, reports Mark Townsend

 

Sunday April 20, 2003

The Observer

 

Amid the rolling fields of Cambridgeshire stands a sprawling complex,

protected by barbed wire and an army of security guards. Beyond the

wire is a maze of laboratories where scientists work to find cures

for the suffering of mankind.

 

This is Europe's largest animal research centre, the mysterious

Government-sanctioned Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) laboratory.

Exact details of the experiments on animals have remained fiercely

guarded secrets. Until now.

 

Today The Observer can expose the previously hidden world of

vivisection. A huge volume of confidential documents - the largest-

ever set of data concerning animal experiments in the UK - has

finally been released following the defeat earlier this month of an

injunction imposed by drug companies 30 months ago. These documents

chart the race to supply an unlimited supply of animal organs in a

bid to save the lives of thousands of Britons.

 

The quest for a successful programme of xenotransplantation - in

which genetically modified animal organs are used within humans -

remains the scientific equivalent of the holy grail. The rewards for

success will be huge: analysts predict that a market worth £6 billion

a year awaits the first firm which can prevent the rejection of such

organs when used in humans.

 

Little wonder that scientists, giant drug companies and Government

Ministers have been committed to pouring millions of pounds into the

HLS programme. So has it been worth it?

 

To the dismay of animal rights activists, the documents reveal how

primates were used in the search for a solution to the chronic global

shortage of human organs for transplant. Baboons were transported

from the African savannahs to die in steel cages the size of toilet

cubicles. The documents show that a quarter of the primates died

from 'technical failures'.

 

Researchers describe how monkeys and baboons died in fits of vomiting

and diarrhoea. Symptoms included violent spasms, bloody discharges,

grinding teeth and uncontrollable, manic eye movements. Other animals

retreated within themselves, lying still in their cages until put of

their misery.

 

Baboon W201m died of a stroke after two days of suffering from limb

spasms and paralysis. Baboon W205m was 'sacrificed' after 21 days. A

genetically modified pig's heart had been welded to the vital

arteries within its neck. Researchers noted the heart was swelling

way beyond its natural size. Strange yellow fluid was seen seeping

from the organ.

 

Others never even made it to HLS, suffering painful deaths en route.

Faxes from global wildlife dealers reveal how at least 50 baboons

were taken from the African plains for the experiments. In one

shipment the creatures spent 34 hours in cramped transport crates -

10 hours longer than approved by the Home Office, which chose not to

take any action.

 

In another shipment, three monkeys were found dead with blood oozing

from their nostrils at a Paris airport. The animals had not been able

to turn and lie down naturally.

 

The Government's involvement in the xenotransplantation programme -

the most high-profile animal experimentation ever conducted in

Britain - is made clear in the documents, along with its failure to

adequately regulate a project that the Home Office believed would

deliver major benefits to society.

 

Many of the 1,274 pages of documents reveal a litany of failings that

will serve to ignite further controversy over HLS, which last week

won a ground-breaking injunction preventing animal protesters getting

close to employees' homes. Fundamental questions over the value of

vivisection itself will also be asked.

 

The papers reveal attempts to bury the true extent of animal

suffering from experiments conducted at the HLS laboratories between

1994 and 2000. Serious incidents of unlicensed animals suffering were

not adequately investigated and regulations were not enforced

properly.

 

Breaches of the law even went unpunished in some cases, with the Home

Office limiting itself to letters of 'admonishment'. One previously

confidential paper reveals how the Home Office worked with Imutran -

the former British subsidiary of multi-million drug giant Novartis,

which was in control of the programme - to underestimate the

suffering caused by the most severe experiments.

 

An Imutran report states: 'The Home Office will attempt to get the

kidney transplants classified as " moderate " , ensuring that it is

easier for Imutran to receive a licence and ignoring the " severe "

nature of these programmes.'

 

The truth of what has been happening at HLS can now be revealed

because of a historic legal victory. The verdict represents an

extraordinary triumph for a Sheffield-based animal rights group,

Uncaged Campaigns, which defeated the injunction imposed by Imutran

and Novartis to suppress the release of the documents. The group

successfully argued that the issue was one of overwhelming public

interest on a highly sensitive area of policy.

 

Dan Lyons has spent the past two-and-a-half years battling against

some of Britain's most powerful lawyers, including those who

represented Hollywood couple Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas

against Hello! magazine.

 

Lyons said: 'This is a tragic scandal of historic proportions.

Ultimately, the appalling failure of government in its most

fundamental duty - to enforce the law - is unmasked. By trying to

cover up their failings, the Government has gambled that their

shameful behaviour would remain hidden. They have lost.'

 

For the scientists involved, the failure of the project to overcome

the human body's natural rejection of foreign organs such as hearts

and kidneys is the real tragedy. Last year 6,482 people in Britain

alone were waiting for transplants. Of these, 414 died while waiting

for organs to become available.

 

Novartis yesterday defended its role at HLS by arguing that

developing new cures for humans invariably meant experimenting on

live animals.

 

The documents refer to the transplanting of genetically modified

pigs' hearts and kidneys into monkeys. Throughout the Nineties,

Imutran claimed it was on the cusp of solving the crucial issue of

organ rejection, which has prevented trials on humans. In 1995 it

told the world it would be ready to start transplanting pig hearts

into humans within a year. Yet the documents clearly show that the

company's xenotransplantation programme has come nowhere near to

fulfilling its promises.

 

Imutran finally left the HLS site in 2000 - and then won an

 

injunction to prevent details of the failed xenotransplantation

project coming to light.

 

An internal inquiry recorded that Imutran and the Home Office

admitted that the crates breached size and ventilation regulations.

Elsewhere, government officials reassured Imutran on several

occasions that a crucial meeting to discuss new licence applications

would be a 'rubber-stamping' exercise.

 

Other striking findings reveal that the Government approved Imutran's

xenotransplanation experiments with the intention of using sick

babies as the first trial patients for animal heart transplants.

 

Some of the research was personally authorised by Ministers, who have

rejected calls for an independent judicial inquiry.

 

In total, the documents reveal at least 520 errors and omissions in

the Imutran research. These include organ weights not being recorded,

a quadruple overdose, conflicting pathology reports and re-use of

animals. One primate was killed when a swab was left inside it.

 

Rather than admit defeat, however, Imutran - now defunct - made a

number of inaccurate claims regarding the success of experiments,

effectively exaggerating the results of its tests to increase the

likelihood of new licences being granted.

 

A Novartis spokesman admitted that Imutran had reported 'several

significant' mistakes to the Home Office but said the company was

committed to ensuring similar mistakes would never be repeated. And

the company remains convinced that its quest to solve the world's

organ shortage will one day be realised.

 

Three centuries searching for the holy grail

 

The strange history of animal-to-human transplants, known as

xenotransplantation, goes back to 1682, when the bone from a dog was

used to repair the skull of an injured Russian aristocrat. It worked.

 

Heart transplant pioneer Christian Barnard did experimental work on

baboons' hearts in South Africa in the Sixties.

 

In 1963, surgeon Thomas Starzl grafted baboon kidneys into six

patients. They survived between 19 and 98 days.

 

The advent of cyclosporin, an immunosuppressant drug, gave

researchers a greater chance of success. In 1977 a 25-year-old woman

was given a baboon heart in South Africa. This worked for six hours.

 

In 1984, a newborn baby received a baboon heart in California. She

lived 20 days.

 

Nine years later, baboon bone marrow and a kidney transplant was

carried out in Pittsburgh, US. The patient died after 26 days.

 

In 1997, Dolly the Sheep was cloned in Scotland, raising the prospect

of cloned animals providing organs for people.

 

Scientists realised the risk that viruses from an animal could be

transmitted to people. The Government announced it was regulating

xenotransplantation.

 

The prospect of the biotech companies earning millions from

xenotransplantation began to diminish. Companies such as PPL

Therapeutics reported losses.

 

In 2002, science turned to stem cell research. These cells can be

engineered to grow new organs with the right genetic make-up, instead

of needing animal organs.

 

http://www.animalconcerns.org/external.html?www==http%

3A//www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0%2C6903%2C940033%

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