China’s science boom is making monkeys very expensive - Asia Specific podcast, BBC World Service

Monkeys, in particular. macaques, have long been used in medical research to test. and develop new drugs and treatments. But there's been a recent global shortage Bill, and that's been pushing up the prices. Yeah. Mariko. Recently, a Chinese lab paid USD 26,000 per monkey. And we've seen reports in the past couple of years. of American labs paying almost double that amount. So this is a huge increase. compared to what they used to cost five or ten years ago. It's obviously a bit of a business opportunity for countries in South East Asia.

We've seen Indonesia resuming the exports of macaques this year. Now, animal rights activists are appalled by that decision. And there are also concerns that the high prices might encourage poaching. Yeah, because the details of how those animals are trapped in the wild, it's quite heartbreaking, isn't it? So we're asking what's driving the price of lab monkeys so high? And also, what does it say about the growing competition between China. and the US in biotechnology.

I'm Mariko in Singapore and this is Asia Specific from the BBC World Service. Twice a week, we bring you Asia Pacific stories. unpacked by those who know them best. Bill Birtles is the Editor of the podcast. Welcome back. Hello, Mariko. So, Bill, this is a topic that not many people know about. Or maybe they don't feel comfortable talking. about animals being used for medical research.

Yeah. It's a long standing practice for scientific research. and the development of new medicines to be doing animal testing. We're talking primarily today about macaques, a type of monkey. It's worth noting though that. the vast majority of animals that are used in drug development. for testing are actually things like rodents and guinea pigs. Fish are used for toxicity testing. So, macaques are by no means the primary animal that is used.

However, because they share so much similar genetic and biological material. with humans, they are, according to the biomedical industry, they are absolutely essential, particularly for later stage drug development. So, um, the focus I guess on lab monkeys is because of the tremendous increase. in the price that they have been selling for in recent years.

And we're joined today by two journalists who have looked. into this story from different angles, we'll later be joined by our Jakarta-based reporter, Liza Tambunan. But firstly, let's bring in Amber Tong, who is an Asia pharma reporter at Bloomberg News. Thank you so much for coming on Asia Specific, Amber. Hi, Mariko and Bill, thanks for having me. So, Amber, you've recently written an article about this topic, and your headline had that very kind of eye catching number,

USD 26,000 per monkey. I mean, that's a crazy amount of money. Where's the demand coming from? Yeah. The US historically has been the dominant buyer of research monkeys. That primarily reflects their leadership in biomedical research. By one estimate, the US uses about 60,000 monkeys per year. And the demand is so high that as recently as 2024, some labs reported purchasing monkeys for 50,000 USD each.

But China is increasingly entering the picture, as a big consumer, user of research monkeys, as the country is rapidly pushing forward its ambition. to become a biotechnology powerhouse. We should note that Europe has also historically been using quite a bit, quite a few research monkeys. I think some estimates put that at about 10,000 per year. How does it work? I mean, there must be some kind of rules,

laws determining how those monkeys can be obtained and sold to each other. Yeah, you're really not supposed to just catch monkeys in the wild. and then bring them into the lab for research. testing. In fact, using wild caught monkeys for research purposes is banned in many countries. and regulators actually have very strict requirements for. the genetic background and the health status of monkeys that are used.

in preclinical testing, which are the, the mandatory kind of phase. before you can go into human testing, if you think about the life cycle of a drug. before it ultimately gets approved. So captive breeding is essentially the only way to ensure that. And in addition to the concerns about conservation, wild caught monkeys could also pose the risk of spreading infectious diseases. That being said, um, the high demand has led to some illicit practices.

We have seen investigations and reports where, wild caught monkeys are poached, or where monkeys are poached. and illegally trafficked to certain breeding farms and then, um, falsely sold under the disguise of being a captive bred monkey. I mean, at the moment, Cambodia, I believe, is the biggest exporter. of those monkeys. But before Covid,

how China used to actually sell quite a lot of those monkeys as well. Can you just explain how the Covid-19 pandemic changed the landscape. of this industry? Yes, that's right, Mariko. Before the pandemic, China was a major exporter of research monkeys, particularly macaques or cynomolgus monkeys. And, the majority of research monkeys imported by the US. actually came from China before Covid.

But during Covid, China imposed a ban on the export of wildlife, and that essentially cut off the export of research monkeys as well. At the same time, Covid also triggered this rush to look. for new vaccines and treatments. And domestically in China, a lot of companies needed monkeys to run tests for their Covid vaccines. So that triggered actually. a surge in monkey prices during Covid within China.

The prices had since gone down. for a bit before kind of climbing back up recently. But this time around, it's a reflection of China's growing power. in innovation and developing drugs for all sorts of diseases, not just Covid. So just before we started this podcast, we were chatting off camera about. how it's not that easy to get a clear steer on. how much monkeys are actually trading for in this industry.

So, you know, we're seeing amounts like USD 26,000. for monkeys sold recently in China. But how do we know what like an average price is around the world? Or do we not know? The USD 26,000 price tag comes. from a contract that was released by a state lab in China, and. they had to do it because they had to make their procurement details public. But biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies,

or even clinical research organisations that run animal tests on. on behalf of their clients, they may be getting monkeys at different prices. And, it could really vary depending on the number. of monkeys that you need, how urgently you need them. How close of a relationship you have with the vendor or. how much more business you may give them in the future. But to put it into context, what do we know about.

how this compares, the prices, compared to, you know, the pre-Covid ban, for example, that China put on exporting monkeys? How much has the price shot up? There was a time when monkeys could be purchased for something like 40,000 RMB. Um, which would be, which is like a quarter of the 200,000 RMB. that some executives are are expecting the prices to go to. So, several like maybe USD 5,000 - 10,000.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. We'll check that later. Check that later. I mean, we've been talking about. how China's pharmaceutical industry is expanding rapidly. But I was also reading how in the US there's a push against using animals. for this kind of medical research, isn't there? So can you just tell us about this kind of competition. between the world's two superpowers? There are two aspects to this. First, there's the push to develop more cutting edge treatments.

And in that regard, China has undergone this incredible transformation. over the past 10, 15 years, going from mainly a producer of generic drugs to being. a pretty capable maker of its own version of top Western treatments, so called me-too, me-better drugs. And now it's really on the cusp of bringing in. novel, cutting edge treatments that can rival their global counterparts.

China now accounts for about a third to half of the world's innovative pipeline. That is, drugs that are in development, not yet on the market. And China is running more clinical trials than any other countries in the world. And increasingly, American and European companies are going to China. to source promising treatments that they can further develop overseas. and potentially bring to the market overseas. So China is really very quickly trying to rival.

or challenge the US in the dominance of, you know, cutting edge biotechnology innovation. Actually, Mariko, on this programme, we've done so many episodes about China-. US competition in various fields. But Amber, from what you're saying about collaboration between Chinese. and US biotech companies, give us a bit of an idea,

is it fair to portray the scientific competition. between the two countries as rivalry or is there actually. a much more collaboration going on than what we might expect? I think both things can be true at the same time. There's both rivalry and collaboration. China clearly wants to be a leader in biotechnology.

and it wants to be able to create its own innovations. and be a powerhouse in kind of supplying. or inventing these cutting edge treatments for the world. But at the same time, the US also wants to keep. its dominance or leadership position. And one way for US companies to gain access. to the best innovation is actually to go to China and collaborate.

with local pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies. We have seen quite a lot of US companies. doing licensing deals with Chinese drug makers to. source treatments that they believe have promise. Is there an alternative though from using monkeys. in this medical research? Is there another way of developing these new drugs and treatments?

Alternatives are certainly being developed. They're sometimes called new approach methodologies or NAMs, and they range from, AI-powered algorithms that crawl. through real world data and genetic data to flag toxicity risks to. so called organ-on-a-chip systems. So these are stem cells that are grown around a scaffold. to kind of mimic the biological process in a specific organ,

for example, a liver or a brain. They still can't fully replace animal testing and monkey testing. Particularly for complex drugs, like newer technologies. that have not really been tested or used in humans before. Amber, is there a debate or a discussion within the industry. about this idea that there could be a move away from animal testing?

Actually, there's a global push to, eventually phase out the use of animal testing. In the US, there is a coordinated push by several federal agencies. We see the Food and Drug Administration releasing guidelines last year. to reduce the dependence on animal testing. And we also see the Environmental Protection Agency kind of recommitting. to eliminate mammalian animal testing by, I think it's by 2035. And in fact, to a certain extent, Chinese regulators have indicated they want to move that way as well.

But for now, animal testing, including monkey testing, remains, even if it's a small part of the drug development process, it remains almost compulsory for, for certain types of drugs and certain types of tests. Yeah. Amber. I gather because of the, the primate similarities with monkeys, you just can't do that sort of testing on other species.

I gather that's, that's what makes, particularly macaques, long tailed macaques, so, so indispensable to this industry. Yeah. That's right. Monkeys share so much of their DNA. I think it's about 94% of their DNA with humans. And it's that physiological similarity that make them, that mean they can give so much insight on. what is likely to happen in humans. If scientists can come up with better ways to predict.

how medicines will behave, in humans, that's actually that, that's a positive, not just for reducing animal suffering or reducing costs. or increasing efficiency, that ultimately, that's good. for the grand goal of making better medicines as well. Well, thank you so much for sharing your insights, Amber. Thank you. Fascinating stuff, isn't it? I mean, hearing about monkeys being used in medical research, it's heartbreaking.

But at the same time, it's obviously very crucial. I'm just staggered by how much is going on in the biomedical space. Obviously, there's more collaboration than we might have assumed. between China and the US, but also too, there just seems to be a huge amount of demand now in both countries. That's obviously pushing up the prices. Yeah. And obviously some countries in South East Asia, they see it as a business opportunity. As we were saying, Cambodia, currently the biggest exporter, but also Indonesia, has resumed the export.

of macaques after, I think, pausing for four years. So let's bring in Liza Tambunan. She's a reporter based in Jakarta. Welcome to Asia Pacific, Liza. Hi. Thank you for having me. So, Liza, how do we know about this resumption of the export of macaques? How did we find out about it? Was it a government announcement? It's an interesting story because it was not a government announcement. It came to light after a coalition of animal rights groups.

actually released a statement condemning. Indonesia's resumption to export long-tailed macaques. and in this statement, it was mentioned. that Indonesia's quota was just under 2,000 monkeys for this year, and this, interestingly, was the first filing since 2022. Now, why that year? I'd like to bring up that in 2022 was the year when IUCN again,

this stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature, placed the long-tailed macaque on its red list as an endangered species. Indonesia stepped back and took stock of the monkeys in the wild. There was an evaluation and assessment. of the population of this specific breed of monkey. And so the export stopped, at least temporarily. This year,

four years later, Indonesia submitted its quota. with just under 2,000 monkeys to be exported. And also, interestingly, these monkeys are native to Indonesia. They are widespread across the country, specifically in Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan. But before this pause in 2022, how big of an exporter was Indonesia?

Was it one of the big players? Not particularly a big player. It is, it was one of the major players in South East Asia. But if you compare it to the biggest player in Cambodia, Indonesia's numbers are actually quite small. I'm just referring to some official numbers recorded by the government. between 2012 to 2022. The numbers, they sit at hundreds, but there were also reported numbers between 1,000 and 3,000.

But the government mentioned that this was due to the different categories. in determining the lineage of these monkeys that were exported. And if you compare it to Cambodia, which is a much larger exporter. of these monkeys, pre-pandemic era, which is before 2020, Cambodia was exporting up to 10,000 live macaques,

primarily to markets in the US, Europe and Asia. And interestingly, during the pandemic in 2020, China stopped exporting wild animals. And Cambodia, came up as the biggest exporter. because there was such a large demand globally. And during that time until 2022, it was reported. that Cambodia was exporting up to 30,000 of these monkeys annually.

The 2,000 or so monkeys that Indonesia is going to export. as part of its resumption of the trade. Obviously, those numbers are a fair bit smaller than some. of the numbers we've seen in recent years from countries like Cambodia. But where are they actually coming from? Like, do they already have an established captive breeding system set up? Most recently, the government officiated the opening. of the newest facility in Lampung, which is located in South Sumatra.

And authorities and officials there said that this facility could house. up to 4,000 monkeys. And it will be a very restricted process, for these captive-bred monkeys to be exported. Liza, you were talking about concerns about poaching. because prices are so high that this could encourage others. to illegally catch monkeys in the wild.

Can you just tell us a bit more about that? Because, you know, some of the details of how that happens is quite heartbreaking. It's interesting because while this animal is listed. as endangered, in Indonesia, many view long-tailed macaques as pests. There have been reported incidents where these monkeys go on a rampage. and actually injure people, elderly and students. So there is that tension.

So if we see that there is a financial motivation to catch these monkeys. and feed them into breeding facilities, there is that worry of over poaching. And obviously it's also a huge business opportunity. for those given this high price that we've been talking about. Thank you so much for joining me, Liza and Bill. Thanks, Mariko. Thank you for having me. You've been watching Asia Specific from the BBC World Service. with me Mariko Oi in Singapore.

If you have any questions or thoughts on what we covered in this episode. or any other stories from the region, please leave us a comment below. You can also get in touch with us on asiaspecific@bbc.co.uk. and click like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you next time.