Records Show Pfizer Used Sick Monkeys in Drug Testing, PETA Urges Review

For Immediate Release:
April 17, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

In letters sent yesterday, PETA urges multiple pharmaceutical companies and other laboratories to review all experiments on monkeys they acquired from or commissioned at the University of Louisiana’s New Iberia Research Center (NIRC), the nation’s largest primate laboratory.

Last month, PETA released a whistleblower video showing monkeys at NIRC confined in accumulated waste with visible signs of stress and injury. Now, PETA has obtained records involving NIRC, Charles River Laboratories, and Pfizer that raise serious concerns about the health of the monkeys NIRC supplies to the pharmaceutical industry, including how animals are selected for experiments that the laboratory is paid to conduct.

In addition to its relationships with Pfizer and Charles River Laboratories, NIRC sells monkeys to or receives funding to conduct monkey experiments from Crown Bioscience; Cyanvac LLC; Elicio Therapeutics; Lovelace Biomedical; Gates Foundation; Merck; Novavax; Ragon Institute—affiliated with Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University—Sanofi; SeromYx Systems, Inc. and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, among others.

The documents, obtained through a public records request, show that monkeys were selected for experiments based on simple criteria such as age, weight, sex, and delivery availability. But documented health issues that could impact study results, including recurrent infection with Salmonella, Shigella, and/or Yersinia, traumatic injuries, weight loss, repeated bouts of diarrhea, and/or active skin lesions would not disqualify animals from selection. Monkeys with some of these conditions were sent from NIRC to Charles River’s Reno laboratory for use in experiments commissioned by Pfizer.

“Sick monkeys don’t just suffer, they distort results and mislead decisions about what is safe and effective for patients,” says PETA Chief Science Advisor on Primate Experimentation Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA strongly urges Pfizer, Charles River, and NIRC to explain how such animals were cleared for studies intended to inform human health.”

Whistleblower footage inside New Iberia Research Center, released by PETA, shows monkeys confined to cramped, barren steel cages in a windowless room, above filth and pools of standing water—promoting disease spread and endangering animals and staff. An unknown liquid, possibly urine, pools beneath cages suspended from the walls in the squalid rooms. Basic sanitation appears to have broken down.

PETA’s video exposé and NIRC’s multiple federal citations for violations of animal care and environmental conditions provide additional context for the condition of animals entering the animal experimentation pipeline.

NIRC confines more than 12,000 monkeys. Charles River Laboratories is one of the world’s largest suppliers and users of animals in laboratories, and Pfizer is among the wealthiest pharmaceutical companies in the world. PETA is concerned that similar practices may be occurring among other laboratories and drug manufacturers. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.