New team lifts veil on animal testing

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- A cloak is being lifted from the highly secretive animal testing industry.

In recent weeks, two Research Triangle Park area labs that conduct scientific tests on animals announced they were joining forces to collaborate with the bioanalytical lab at the UNC-Chapel Hill pharmacy school.

In doing so, the newly formed network will adhere to stricter treatment standards and quality controls typically found in larger research organizations.

"We need to make this public to drive science," said Rick Williams, chief business officer for the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences in RTP, which keeps research mice and rats. Hamner collaborates with Synecor Labs in Durham, a provider of dogs, cats and pigs to test medical devices such as stents and surgical tools.

Animal testing is a staple in drug research, but little is known about the facilities. North Carolina, the third-largest U.S. biotech hub by number of companies, is dotted with more than two dozen facilities that keep mice, dogs, pigs, monkeys and other animals destined for the laboratory.

For decades, universities, research institutes and private companies have kept a lid on where these facilities are and what goes on inside. Hamner and Synecor operated as closely guarded secrets but have announced their collaboration with the UNC pharmacy school to form the N.C. Biomedical Innovation Network. Creating the network requires all three to follow good laboratory practices, which aim to ensure that test results are reliable and consistent. Good laboratory practices also require proper animal husbandry, said Naina Bhasin, a cell biologist who heads business and technology development at the Hamner.

"You want to reduce stress to make sure that the animals are happy and healthy," Bhasin said, adding that research animals in crowded or dirty conditions produce test results skewed by environmental factors.

Colleen Stack N'diaye, medical director for Synecor Labs, agreed. She said Synecor has two veterinarians on site who ensure the animals get top care.

Activists for animals remain skeptical. Beth Levine, who advocates for alternatives to animal testing, praises Hamner for moving toward drug safety testing that relies on a computer model rather than mice and rats. She said she has never visited either Hamner's or Synecor's research animal facility.

"If all of a sudden animal testing was outlawed, it would be absolutely amazing how fast researchers would come up with something else," Levine said.