BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a national nonprofit with more than 17,000 doctor members, filed federal complaints today with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health for experiments conducted at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC).
The complaint alleges that Oregon Health & Science University's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the body that approves animal experiments at the center, is illegally constituted in violation of federal law, undermining the validity of its oversight and calling into question the legitimacy of protocols it has approved. In addition, the complaint documents a pattern of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations and raises concern that ongoing NIH-funded experiments are duplicative and scientifically unjustified.
"Taken together," the complaint says, "these issues demonstrate a pattern of disregard for federal animal ethics standards warranting federal investigation."
Under the AWA, if an IACUC has more than three members, no more than three can be from the same administrative unit of the facility. Of the 15 members of OHSU's IACUC, at least half of them are employees at ONPRC. Between seven and nine of the 15 OHSU IACUC members are ONPRC staff -- the very entity whose experiments they are tasked with reviewing -- compromising the committee's independence and violating federal standards.
Because the IACUC is the cornerstone of institutional oversight, an improperly constituted committee cannot fulfill its legal obligations to ensure alternatives to animals were considered, and unnecessary or duplicative experiments are not approved. As a result, any protocols approved under such a committee are legally and ethically suspect.
On Feb. 9, the OHSU Board of Directors voted to authorize the development of a plan with the NIH to transition the primate center toward closure and sanctuary. The Board's vote limits the breeding of monkeys. It also creates opportunities for investments in nonanimal research methods.
"The Board's recent vote shows growing recognition that change is needed," said Janine McCarthy, MPH, director of research policy at the Physicians Committee. "An oversight body that violates federal law cannot credibly oversee anything -- its approvals are fundamentally compromised and must be addressed immediately."
In addition to the complaint, the Physicians Committee also sent a letter directly to OHSU's Board of Directors, requesting that the current IACUC be disbanded and the termination of any active protocols using primates that were approved under the illegally constituted IACUC.