US lawmakers will ask regulators to investigate whether a panel overseeing animal testing has been set up Elon Muskbrain-chip startup neuralink Contributed to the wrong and hurried experiments.
US House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff, both Democrats, have signed a draft letter to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting an investigation into Neuralink’s experiments, Blumenauer’s office said.
Lawmakers have shared the draft with peers to collect more signatures and plan to send it to the USDA on Monday. The draft states that they are responding to a May 4 Reuters story that revealed that Neuralink filled its oversight board with company employees who were determined to benefit financially from the start-up. stand to gain regulatory approval for their novel brain chip.
The panel approved experiments that resulted in unnecessary death and suffering of animals, Reuters showed in a December 5 story. A spokeswoman for Blumenauer said the USDA did not respond to an earlier request by lawmakers to investigate Neuralink in the wake of that story.
The draft paper states, “Congress has a vital interest in ensuring that all facilities using animals in research and testing – whether they are government-run, universities or private companies – meet the Animal Welfare Act’s minimum standards.” Follow.”
Musk and Neuralink representatives, and spokespeople for the USDA and the agency’s inspector general did not respond to requests for comment.
Neuralink has already been the subject of a federal investigation. Reuters reported on December 5 that at the request of a federal prosecutor, the USDA’s inspector general was investigating possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates how researchers treat and test certain types of animals. The investigation is also looking into the USDA’s oversight of Neuralink.
The inspector general and the USDA did not respond to a request for comment on the progress of that investigation.
The US Department of Transportation said in February that it was investigating Neuralink over the movement of dangerous pathogens. A spokeswoman for the agency said the investigation was ongoing, without giving details.
USDA inspectors visited Neuralink’s California and Texas facilities in January in response to Reuters reporting and questions from lawmakers, but found no problems, Reuters reported last week.
Neuralink is trying to win approval to move forward with human trials after an earlier effort was rejected last year by the Food and Drug Administration due to safety concerns.
© Thomson Reuters 2023