Malacca state chief defends plan to build testing lab saying animals are for benefit of humans

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

A Malaysian minister today defended plans to build an animal testing medicine lab in his state, saying God created monkeys and rats for experiments to benefit humans.

Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam said the lab had been approved, and animal testing was necessary to make drugs. "We cannot test on human beings," he said. "God created monkeys, and some have to be tested."

The plans by Indian firm Vivo BioTech to set up a lab in Malacca has come under fire from activists who say test subjects could be abused because Malaysia has no regulations on animal research.

Mohamad Ali said Malaysian agencies, such as the wildlife department, could monitor that the animals were not abused and proper procedures followed. He said eating animals could also be seen as cruel, and yet it was widely accepted.

Vivo signed a 450 million ringgit (£97m) joint-venture deal in January to build the biotechnology centre, including laboratories where trial medicines will be tested on animals. Its partners are state government-owned Melaka Biotech Holdings and local firm Vanguard Creative Technologies.

Malaysia's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals criticised Mohamad Ali's statement, saying it had not been scientifically proven that animal testing was necessary to develop medicine.

"Our primates will be snatched from the forests to be tested for what? Animal testing really leads to nowhere," group representative Christine Chin-Radford said."We are not confident at all that ... their welfare will be looked at properly. We are concerned about this exportation of cruelty to Malaysia."

SPCA, together with European animal rights groups, submitted a protest letter to the government last month, urging it to halt the project. Chin-Radford said animal cruelty is against Malaysian law, and there are no separate guidelines to govern the treatment of test animals.

Animal rights activists say companies are increasingly outsourcing animal testing to Asia, where regulations are more lax and costs are lower than in the West. India also has strict rules concerning animal testing, Chin-Radford said.

Vivo has said previously it may import beagles from the Netherlands and try to obtain domestic primates for testing.

Last year a French pharmaceutical research company proposed building an animal testing laboratory in southern Johor state using imported macaques, but the project was suspended amid an outcry from environmental groups.