For Bioqual, monkey business is big business

Monday, July 7, 2008

For Bioqual, monkey business is big business

Rockville company wins $24M contract renewal for NIH research

by Kevin James Shay | Staff Writer

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Rockville biomedical research company Bioqual has won a $24 million contract from the National Institutes of Health of Bethesda to house and maintain non-human primates for medical research.

The award from NIH’s Allergy and Infectious Diseases unit is a renewal of a similar contract Bioqual won, LaDonna R. Stewart, an NIH contract specialist, said Monday. But it does not involve chimpanzees, she said.

‘‘It could be any type of monkey, but not chimpanzees,” Stewart said.

Research involving chimpanzees and other primates has been targeted by animal rights advocates and members of Congress. In April, legislation was filed in the U.S. House of Representatives to further limit research on ‘‘great apes,” a bill whose sponsors include Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Dist. 6) of Buckeystown.

Called the Great Ape Protection Act, the legislation seeks to end ‘‘invasive research” on great apes and retire several hundred federally owned and controlled great apes in laboratories to permanent sanctuaries. The bill defines a great ape as a chimpanzee, gorilla, bonobo, orangutan or gibbon.

Invasive research is defined as research that may cause death, bodily injury, pain, distress, fear, injury or trauma to a great ape, such as testing of drugs that may be detrimental to the animal’s health.

Bioqual executives could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The company abides by government legal and safety standards in dealing with animals, according to its Internet site. Executives are ‘‘proud of [Bioqual’s] contributions to research with investigators at the National Institutes of Health, which have led to the development of Havrix, the hepatitis A vaccine, new therapies in the fight against AIDS and the first rotavirus oral vaccine” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the site says.

For the quarter ended Feb. 29, Bioqual reported a profit of $152,506, down from $351,714 in the prior-year quarter. Revenues totaled $6.2 million, up from $5.6 million.