What if the monkey on his back is monkey experimentation?

More rhetoric about primate testing is expected to come out of a UK commission momentarily. The press is already anticipating the response of the anti-vivisection community:

Those in favour of monkey research say the neural circuitry involved in diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's cannot be properly investigated without the use of primates.

Opponents insist primates are poor models for human disease and research on monkeys has failed to produce treatments for any leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and malaria.

They point to the Northwick Park drug trial disaster as an example of how misleading primate research can be. Six volunteers given the leukaemia, rheumatism and multiple sclerosis antibody drug TGN 1412 almost died in March after tests on monkeys appeared to show it was safe.

If everything is so fine and dandy with the primate model (or any other animal model for that matter) why do they suppose the Duff Commission called for an EU-wide database of animal test results? It certainly wasn't to track success.

For full news item, see The Guardian.