Monkey deaths at Musk's brain-implant firm stir calls for FDA bans

[dalton99a]

Last edited Tue Dec 13, 2022, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/elon-musk-animal-cruelty-fda/
https://archive.ph/ewcYa

Monkey deaths at Musk’s brain-implant firm stir calls for FDA bans
Botched surgeries of monkeys, pigs and sheep render data from medical device tests unreliable, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine wrote to federal regulators
By Jacob Bogage
December 13, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. EST

A leading medical ethics advocacy group asked federal regulators Tuesday to disqualify data collected by Elon Musk’s Neuralink medical device company during animal tests, potentially stymieing the tech mogul’s aspirations to develop brain implants.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine wants the Food and Drug Administration to discipline Neuralink over charges that it violated “good laboratory practice” — a standard set of regulations that govern biological tests and data reporting — during invasive and gruesome tests on monkeys, sheep and pigs. It also requested that the FDA bar Neuralink from conducting additional animal trials.

Musk has said his company is months away from starting human trials and has begun submitting data to the FDA to gain regulatory approvals. Any sanctions from the agency could force Neuralink to begin the rigorous approval process anew.

“When you submit your paperwork to FDA, you can’t start following good laboratory practices at that time. You need to have been following them for quite a while,” said Ryan Merkley, the Physicians Committee’s director of research advocacy. “And clearly, from our perspective based on public records and news reports, it’s hard for us to believe that Neuralink had been following good laboratory practices.”

[Docreed2003]

1. Who would willingly volunteer for this human trial

Knowing the death rate they've had during animal trials. This just seems like a boondoggle and a disaster to me.

[dalton99a]

2. Perhaps Elon will purchase "volunteers" from nursing homes and prisons

[DBoon]

3. or his employees, as part of their "extreme" workplace

[dalton99a]

4. +1. For the glory of Dear Leader!