News Archive
 Express
Expose Wins International Award
At a star-studded ceremony in California on 10 March, the Daily Express
was presented with the Ark Trust International Award "for an alarming
and courageous two-part expose of the pharmaceutical company Imutran,
and its subcontractor Huntingdon Life Sciences, revealing a hideous house
of xenotransplantation horrors." Full story and links to the articles
at www.xenodiaries.org.
04.04.01
 Parliamentary
Motion calls for Diaries of Despair Judicial Inquiry
An Early Day Motion (No. 415) tabled on behalf of Uncaged Campaigns calls
for an independent judicial inquiry into the Diaries of Despair scandal.
The motion has already attracted cross-party support from 35 MP's (as
of 21 March 2001). Find out more about the EDM and how to lobby your MP
to sign the motion at www.xenodiaries.org.
21.03.01
 Government
Experts Sound Death Knell for Pig Organ Transplants
The Government's expert advisory committee on cross-species transplants
has expressed serious doubts about the prospects of successful pig-to-human
organ transplants. The committee, called the United Kingdom Xenotransplantation
Regulatory Authority (UKXIRA), held its third annual public meeting yesterday
at Westminster. The Authority's Third Annual Report was also launched
at the meeting.
In September 2000, the Authority had been sent an enormous cache of documents
describing Imutran/Novartis's programme of pig-to-primate organ transplants.
Imutran, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharma and based in Cambridge, had been
seen as a world leader in the development of pig organs for transplant
purposes. The documents had been leaked to anti-vivisection group Uncaged
Campaigns, and were reported on in the Daily Express on 21st and 22nd
September. They showed horrific animal suffering in the research, revealed
the misleading nature of Imutran/Novartis publicity, and laid bare the
research's startling lack of progress. The information clearly has influenced
the Authority's thinking, though because of an injunction granted to Imutran/Novartis
preventing publication of the documents on grounds of breach of confidentiality
and copyright, the Authority would not discuss the documents and the accompanying
Diaries of Despair report.
Members of the Authority stunned the audience as they acknowledged the
lack of progress in overcoming the powerful rejection of pig organs by
the human body and the growing fears over the virus dangers of pig organs.
Authority member John Dark, a Newcastle heart transplant surgeon, told
the audience that research involving the implantation of transgenic pig
organs into primates, such as that conducted by Imutran/Novartis, had
yielded "disappointing" results and had lead up a "blind
alley". He concluded with deliberate irony: "Xenotransplantation
is the future of transplants -and it always will be!"
Another UKXIRA member, Professor Herb Sewell, an immunologist based in
Nottingham, said he could not see progress "within a ten year time
scale, if at all." He also warned that the public predictions made
by Imutran in 1995 of human trials of pig organs during 1996, emphasised
the need for professionals to engage with the public in an accurate and
balanced way.
In his presentation, virologist Professor Robin Weiss (Windeyer Institute
of Medical Sciences) was scathing about Imutran/Novartis's approach to
investigating the danger of viruses crossing from pigs to humans as a
result of the cross-species transplants. He said he found it "extraordinary"
that, despite his advice, the company had only searched for one class
of pig viruses in a study of patients who had been exposed to living pig
tissue. He was also critical in general about the failure of the company
to conduct sufficient research into the problem in the past six years.
The danger to public health posed by pig viruses has been one of the most
persistent obstacles to the technology of cross-species transplants.
The Authority was also critical of the decision by Imutran/Novartis to
switch its pig-to-primate transplant research from the UK to the US and
Canada, which lack animal welfare regulations. The Chairman of the Authority,
Lord Habgood (former Archbishop of York), told the audience that the UKXIRA
that "scientific research involving the use of animals is best conducted
in countries where appropriate regulatory controls are in place to ensure
that due regard is given to animal welfare."
Dr Maggy Jennings, an Authority member and a senior RSPCA official, focussed
on the "serious and substantial" costs to pigs, primates and
other animals in terms of suffering and death. She stated that the animal
suffering had not been sufficiently considered when determining whether
xenotransplantation research should be permitted by the Government. With
the prospect of successful pig organ transplants receding, she recommended
that the ethical question of whether the "benefits" to humans
outweighed the substantial suffering endured by animals needs to be re-examined.
Dan Lyons, Director of Uncaged Campaigns, was present at the meeting.
He said:
"The death knell for pig organ transplants has been sounded.
The Authority has finally arrived at the position we have been arguing
for for five years: pig organ transplants are cruel, dangerous, and
unlikely to even work. Furthermore, the positive developments in alternative
approaches to dealing with organ failure that were identified by the
Authority show that pig organ transplants are unnecessary. We urge Novartis
to do the decent thing and stop this cruel and hazardous research."
For further information see our dedicated website at
www.xenodiaries.org. For
access to the full UKXIRA report - see especially section 6 - visit www.doh.gov.uk/ukxann3.htm.
The UKXIRA can be contacted at 020 7972 4822.
Uncaged Campaigns 08.02.01
 Judgement
Announced: Injunction Upheld
On Thursday 11 January 2001, the High Court in London upheld the injunction
requested by Imutran/Novartis preventing Uncaged Campaigns and Dan Lyons
from revealing the truth about the company's horrific pig-to-primate organ
transplant experiments. The judge has stopped us from publishing any of
the leaked information whatsoever. For more news about the judgement see
our dedicated website at www.xenodiaries.org.
12.01.01
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