Merck & Co, Inc., will stop conducting or financially
supporting biomedical research on chimpanzees into the foreseeable future. The
availability of alternatives has led to the policy change by one of the world’s
largest pharmaceutical companies. The Humane Society of the United States
welcomes the company’s decision.
The announcement follows years of dialogue between The HSUS
and Merck about concerns for the company’s use of chimpanzees in invasive
experiments, and follows major recent actions by the National Institutes of
Health and the U.S. Congress to facilitate the retirement of hundreds of
government-owned chimps from laboratories to sanctuaries.