Palantir-Backed Startup Aims to Solve US Lab Monkey Shortage Stemming From China Ban
· World · Times of India, Reuters
America's pharmaceutical industry faces an acute shortage of laboratory monkeys following China's 2020 export ban, which halted a supply chain that previously accounted for nearly 60 percent of US imports. Macaque prices have surged from approximately $3,000 in 2019 to over $20,000, with Chinese suppliers charging up to $26,000 per animal. Subsequent reliance on Cambodian imports faced scrutiny in 2022 over wild-caught animals misrepresented as captive-bred. To address the crisis, Safer Human Medicine, a tech startup backed by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, plans to establish a large-scale breeding facility in the US targeting 30,000 macaques over the next twenty years.
Why it matters
Accelerated drug discovery driven by AI has heightened the demand for animal testing, making domestic primate breeding essential for pharmaceutical research pipelines.
Read the original report — Times of India
Join us on Telegram
Breaking news the moment it lands. At 10,000 members we ship the Android app.