InVivo and OHSU Are Responsbile For Horrible Spinal Experiments And Suffering On Monkeys!!!!!

This entire article, from beginning to end is heart breaking, disgusting, inhumane and extremely sad for the Monkeys. It really makes me ill to my stomach.

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A Boston medical device maker has settled its lawsuit against Oregon Health & Science University over the quality of OHSU’s monkeys.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, alleged that OHSU had breached a research agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based InVivo Therapeutics Corp.

InVivo had contracted with OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center to test treatments for severe spinal cord injuries using medical implants.

The research center is one of eight of its kind in the U.S. It breeds primates.

According to InVivo’s complaint, the device maker had agreed to pay $603,180 to OHSU to begin its study on a pool of 24 monkeys. After assessing the monkeys, it aimed to surgically severe the spinal cords of 16, paralyzing them, and then implant InVivo’s device.

But when InVivo staffers visited OHSU at the outset of the study, in January 2009, they found only 19 monkeys available — and that number soon began to dwindle.

In court documents, InVivo alleged that:

• One monkey broke its ankle and two had “training issues,” leaving just 16 available when the study began.

• A post-surgery staff infection debilitated another monkey.

• After successfully implanting devices in seven monkeys, OHSU refused to allow surgery on the remaining eight because of bladder problems — though InVivo said these problems were to be expected.

• Four more monkeys experienced complications and were euthanized by OHSU, leaving only three primates available for study.

With only three monkeys available to conduct its study, InVivo entered into a new, smaller, contract with OHSU in May, but that arrangement also ran into troubles, InVivo alleged.

OHSU then demanded a total payment of $1.2 million to complete the animal trial and refused to give back any of InVivo’s surgical equipment until payment was received, according to InVivo’s complaint.

OHSU did not respond in court to InVivo’s charges, and both sides quickly turned to an outside mediator to address the dispute.

On Dec. 18, they reached an out-of-court agreement.

InVivo and OHSU declined to discuss the litigation, but on Monday confirmed that the settlement had been reached. In a joint statement, they said:

“The parties jointly acknowledge that the research in question — involving a potentially ground-breaking medical device designed to help those who have suffered spinal cord injuries — was important and beneficial to the advancement of medicine.

“The parties also jointly acknowledge that the individuals who conducted the research and cared for the animals acted professionally, ethically and with the utmost concern for the humane treatment of the animals.

“InVivo will continue to support research in this area and hopes that one day a similar device may be used in humans to promote long-term recovery of neurological function.”

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