Other laboratory facilities housing or using chimpanzees in the U.S. include:

• BIOQUAL, Inc.
• Language Research Center (Georgia State University)

BIOQUAL, Inc.

Rockville, Maryland

(BIOQUAL, Inc., formerly: Diagnon Corporation, SEMA Inc., and Meloy)

Approximate number of chimpanzees: 30

History & Profile

BIOQUAL, Inc. (BIOQUAL) is a publicly traded, contract biomedical research laboratory that receives NIH funding and is located close to NIH headquarters. (1) BIOQUAL conducts “infectious disease and related research using a variety of laboratory animal species with an emphasis on nonhuman primates.” (2)  Recent information reveals that their three lab facilities have “approximately 1,300 nonhuman primates, in addition to rabbits, ferrets, chickens, and rodents,” and “encompass over 140,000 square feet” of space for animal research. (3) BIOQUAL employs around 150 people. (4)

The company was named BIOQUAL in December 1999, prior to which it had a sequence of different names: Diagnon Corporation, SEMA Inc., and Meloy.

BIOQUAL claims to have “a long history of providing state-of-the-art facilities and trained, experienced animal care.” (5) When the facility was operated as SEMA, an animal rights group called True Friends entered this lab in 1987 and exposed its conditions to the public. (6) A 13-minute film produced by PETA, Breaking Barriers, shows True Friends breaking into SEMA and documenting the conditions there. For an annotated list of printed works covering free-living chimpanzees, the use of chimpanzees in research, and related ethical issues, please click here.

This facility was named BIOQUAL in December 1999, prior to which it had a sequence of different names: Diagnon Corporation, SEMA Inc., and Meloy.

The horrific conditions in which this facility kept its chimpanzees were corroborated by the famous primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, who commented:

When I visited there in March of 1987, I saw pairs of three-year-old chimps crammed into cages measuring 22 inches by 22 inches and two feet high. Each cage was pushed into something that looked like a microwave oven with a little panel of glass at the top. The only contact with the outside world was through a vent with air roaring in. It was so dark in those cages that the technicians had to use flashlights to see what the chimps were doing. (7)

Read Dr. Goodall’s complete comments on the facility at that time here.

Chimpanzee Use

Currently, it is unclear which specific research protocols still use chimpanzees.

Past research grants from NIH to BIOQUAL have indicated that chimpanzees were used in genetic research and respiratory syncytial virus research.  In 2001, Grant 5R44AG017802, “Comparative DNA Sequence Variation in Alzheimer Genes,” was awarded to BIOQUAL for $738,847 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

The purpose of the study was “to identify DNA mutations in Alzheimer Disease (AD)-related genes in chimpanzees. BIOQUAL scientists will use biochemical assays to identify aged, living chimpanzees with dementia or other aging-related disorders.” (8) “Furthermore, by genetically characterizing brain tissues from chimpanzees that have been behaviorally characterized and made available to neuroscientists, this project can increase the value of our on-going Great Ape Brain Bank initiative,” as well as “advance our understanding of the relationship between AD-related genes and neuropathology in chimpanzees.” (9) “However, it is not known for certain whether chimpanzees actually suffer from AD.” (10)  The “proposed commercial applications” of the study included being able to “facilitate a pharmacogenomics approach to testing novel pharmaceuticals in neurogenetically defined chimpanzees prior to human trials.” (11)

Research Profile *

BIOQUAL has five divisions: laboratory animal sciences, reproductive endocrinology and toxicology, neurobiology and behavior, primate biology and medicine, and bioresearch. “All of the nonhuman primate studies are conducted by the Division of Primate Biology and Medicine.” (12)

BIOQUAL research includes “immunological, reproductive and transgenic studies and services, behavioral and neurological testing, digestive diseases and drug delivery.” (13) They currently have government contracts with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Their non-government contracts involve supporting “research in transmission of SIV between parent and offspring,” and evaluating “the safety and efficacy of an HIV/SIV vaccine.” (14)

In 2000, BIOQUAL was awarded two NIH contracts for AIDS research: “a five-year, $4.6 million deal with the National Cancer Institute and a seven-year, $10.7 million contract with NIAID.” (15)

In 2002, BIOQUAL “won a five-year, $21.2 million contract to support research efforts in contraception and reproductive health through an entity of the National Institutes of Health.” The award is “a renewal of BIOQUAL’s existing contract with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development… BIOQUAL will provide testing services.” (16)

In 2008, BIOQUAL “won a $24 million contract from the National Institutes of Health of Bethesda to house and maintain non-human primates for medical research. The award from NIH’s Allergy and Infectious Diseases unit is a renewal of a similar contract Bioqual won,…But it does not involve chimpanzees.” (17) For 2008, BIOQUAL had “an increase of approximately $798,000 in government contract activity.” (18)

* These research programs may involve primates other than chimpanzees.

Financials

• Publicly traded on the Pink Sheets under the symbol BIOQ
• For fiscal year 2005, the company had revenues of $18.5 million (19)
• For fiscal year 2008, the company had revenues of almost $25 million. (20)

Address

Sources

(1) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/award/

(2) http://www.aclam.org/print/newsletter2007-06.pdf

(3) http://www.aclam.org/print/newsletter2007-06.pdf

(4) http://free.salesfuel.com/companies/Bioqual-Inc-703060.html

(5) www.bioqual.com/govt_contract.asp

(6) http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/cantor01.pdf

(7) Excerpted from Across the Species Barrier: Jane Goodall on Chimpanzees. (Accessed Feb. 16, 2005.)

(8) The Free Library

(9) http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/

(10) The Free Library

(11) http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/

(12) http://www.bioqual.com/non_human.asp

(13) Bioqual, Inc. Profile

(14) http://www.bioqual.com/non_human.asp

(15) Chea, Terence. (Mar. 6, 2001). NIH Enlists Bioqual to Study AIDS. The Washington Post, p. E5.

(16) Washington Business Journal (Jan. 22, 2002)

(17) http://www.gazette.net/stories/070708/businew172133_32365.shtml

(18) http://www.bioqual.com/images/FY08MD&A.pdf

(19) 8/30/05 CEO Letter to Shareholders, obtained from website 10/01/05

(20) http://free.salesfuel.com/companies/Bioqual-Inc-703060.html

Language Research Center

Decatur, Georgia

(Affiliated with Georgia State University)

Approximate number of chimpanzees: 4

History & Profile

The Language Research Center (LRC) is operated by the Department of Psychology in Georgia State University’s College of Arts and Sciences on a wooded 55-acre facility south of Atlanta. (1) LRC is home to chimpanzees and monkeys. (2)

Dr. Duane Rumbaugh, an experimental psychologist, began language studies with chimpanzees in association with Georgia State University. (3) The studies taught chimpanzees and bonobos using a computer-monitored keyboard to communicate using lexigrams, or abstract symbols. (4) The language of communication is referred to by researchers as Yerkish, after the Yerkes Primate Center. 

Chimpanzee Use

Four chimpanzees – Lana, Sherman, Panzee, and Mercury – are used in “social, cognitive and biobehavioral” research conducted at LRC. (5) 

Research Profile *

Principal Research Programs: Language and cognitive abilities of chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys. The primary research project is a “program-project grant supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-38051). Brain, Behavior, and Emergence of Cognitive Competence is … comprised of an administrative core and five independent but interrelated research projects.” (6)

* These research programs involve primates other than chimpanzees.

Address

Sources

(1) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/home.htm

(2) http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/primates-main.htm

(3) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/history.htm

(4) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/history.htm

(5) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/chimps.htm and www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/index.htm

(6) www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/b2ec2projects.htm

Last updated: November 2009