China Pushes Boundaries With Animal Testing to Win Global Biotech Race (bloomberg.com) 36
China is accelerating its biotech ambitions by pushing the limits of animal testing and gene editing (source paywalled; alternative source) while Western countries tighten ethical restrictions. "Editing the genes of large animals such as pigs, monkeys and dogs faces scant regulation in China," reports Bloomberg. "Meanwhile, regulators in the US and Europe demand layers of ethical reviews, rendering similar research involving large animals almost impossible." From the report: Backing the work of China's scientists is not only permissiveness but state money. In 2023 alone, the Chinese government funneled an estimated $3 billion into biotech. Its sales of cell and gene therapies are projected to reach $2 billion by 2033 from $300 million last year. On the Chinese researchers' side are government-supported breeding and research centers for gene-edited animals and a public largely in approval of pushing the boundaries of animal testing.
The country should become "a global scientific and technology power," Xi said, declaring biotechnology and gene editing a strategic priority. For decades, the country's pharmaceutical companies specialized in generics, reproducing drugs already pioneered elsewhere. Delving head first into gene editing research may be key to China's plan to develop innovative drugs as well as reduce its dependence on foreign pharmaceutical companies.
The result is a country that now dominates headlines with stories of large, genetically modified animals being produced for science -- and the catalog is startling. Its scientists have created monkeys with schizophrenia, autism and sleep disorders. They were the first to clone primates. They've engineered dogs with metabolic and neurological diseases, and even cloned a gene-edited beagle with a blood-clotting disorder.
The country should become "a global scientific and technology power," Xi said, declaring biotechnology and gene editing a strategic priority. For decades, the country's pharmaceutical companies specialized in generics, reproducing drugs already pioneered elsewhere. Delving head first into gene editing research may be key to China's plan to develop innovative drugs as well as reduce its dependence on foreign pharmaceutical companies.
The result is a country that now dominates headlines with stories of large, genetically modified animals being produced for science -- and the catalog is startling. Its scientists have created monkeys with schizophrenia, autism and sleep disorders. They were the first to clone primates. They've engineered dogs with metabolic and neurological diseases, and even cloned a gene-edited beagle with a blood-clotting disorder.
Rules. (Score:5, Insightful)
Xizilla (Score:3)
The Mutant Wet Market will produce something 100x scarier than Covid.
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Yes, and unfortunately it gives the U.S. Junta ideas on how they can get rid of regulations governing ethics on animal testing in the U.S.
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Kill all the rats you want, don't hurt dogs, and never ever try to clone a person, not even a little bit.
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On the bright side, most Chinese people, including those in the governing party, believe in some form of reincarnation. If that exists, here's to hope all supporters of such practices may enjoy being reborn in their future-proof schizophrenic autistic sleep-deprived blood-clotting-prone monkey-dog chimeras as those scream in agony while wandering the ruins of now extinct humanity.
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You act is if it is somehow better or more acceptable that China tortures animals and endangers our biome's genetic heritage vs someone here doing it.
Sin is sin no matter who or the where its all bad. However the free trade crowd is the more dangerous driver here. If we happily accept the products of China's abuses then we encourage them to do more abuse. It makes us just as guilty, perhaps more so because it is just a thinly veiled attempt to profit from the crime, while keeping it out of site, its lies pi
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It hurts now though. We tried to increase trade because trade has in every other case improved relations and made both parties more democratic. Turns out the democratic trade theory doesn't apply when one party is a totalitarian dictatorship with the resources to compete on an equal footing.
I'm one of the people who thought it would work, and that the
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Re: Rules. (Score:2)
Maybe when the next plague comes out (Score:5, Interesting)
It will be a manufactured one, by AI, in one of the small unregulated labs in China.
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Nah, it will be like that Vonnegut book, forgot which one, where the Chinese got smaller and smaller until they became the plague.
And then they all went to Mars.
Why are they cloning Elon Musk? (Score:5, Funny)
Animals with diseases? That's disturbing. (Score:2)
All they're missing are animals with extra asses and then I could've said "South Park did it first!"
Human cloning for organs... (Score:3, Interesting)
Xe needs fresh compatible organs so human cloning seems an obvious direction...
May be useful for biological warfare like COVID hitting only non-Chinese...
Or limbs replacement for soldiers...
Or lab-bred future soldiers... or AI brains for drones...
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You're going to need to deal with immune rejection first, and in a way that doesn't disable the immune system.
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It's more in democracies lots of people are squeamish about things that don't directly benefit them, or which they aren't used to.
If people cared about humanity to animals, the way chickens are raised would be illegal.
Re: Right. (Score:1)
Just so we're on the same page, a democracy is where once every four years or so, some people make their choice from unacceptable candidates who are all playing for the same team. During this process, information warfare is used to sway their decision. Occasionally this isn't enough to make the fiction of democracy line up with the plan so the election is outright stolen in front of everyone. Once in power, the candidate gets on with enacting the underlying agenda and stops pretending to care about the view
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Live baby chicks in industrial meat grinders (Score:4, Informative)
just for being male and not economical. Billions each year ground up while alive. Ethics?
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Autism monkeys (Score:2)
So they're giving pregnant monkeys Tylenol?
What does it even mean to win the race? (Score:2)
I constantly see this headline "Winning the global race in blah blah". I'm pretty sure this is a scare tactic meant to gin up support for more spending. But what does it even mean for a country to "win a global race"?
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> what does it even mean for a country to "win a global race"?
It means:
This in a country where people eat dog meat (Score:2)
Maybe food-purity laws will stymie this...