Musk Fills Animal-Research Oversight Board with Company Insiders

Fri May 05 2023
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ISLAMABAD: Elon Musk’s brain-implant venture has filled an animal-research oversight board with his company insiders who may benefit financially as the firm is experimenting with trials on animals and seeking approval for human beings, according to documents and interviews with six current and former workers.

According to Reuters, such oversight boards were required by federal law for organisations experimenting on certain kind of animals. The panels were charged with ensuring proper animal care, research standards, and the reliability of data that helps regulators decide whether drugs and medical devices were safe for human testing.

The dozen animal research and bioethics experts said the panel members at the company, Neuralink raise questions about possible violations of conflict-of-interest regulations aimed at protecting research integrity. Neuralink is conducting different animal experiments as it seeks regulatory trial approval for human beings of the brain chip intended to help paralyzed people type with their minds, among other ambitious aims.

According to Musk’s company document reviewed by Reuters

According to Musk’s company document reviewed by Reuters, nineteen of the board’s 22 members were Neuralink workers as of late 2022. The oversight board’s chair was the Neuralink executive led the company’s animal-care program, and at least eleven other members were workers directly involved with animal care or research.

Details of the panel’s members and potential conflicts haven’t been reported. Insight into its makeup comes in the wake of two federal investigations, Reuters first reported, into potential animal-welfare violations by Neuralink and allegations it improperly transported threat pathogens on implants removed from monkey brains. Reuters reported in December that some workers had grown concerned about the different animal experiments being rushed under pressure from Musk to rapid development, causing needless suffering and deaths of sheep, pigs, and monkeys.

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