“The rise and fall of monkey prices is more frightening than the rise and fall of the stock market.” For practitioners in the biomedical industry, the price of experimental monkeys has experienced huge ups and downs in recent years, soaring from more than 7,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan. , but it is still hard to find a monkey, and many innovative pharmaceutical companies and countless scientific researchers have pressed the pause button.
Since this year, monkey prices are slowly falling. Health Times reporters learned from several staff members of experimental monkey production companies that the industry generally believes that the decline in monkey prices is a major trend, and monkey prices will continue to decline. According to the public bidding announcement for the first batch of experimental monkey procurement projects in 2023 announced by the China Government Procurement Network in April, the budgeted purchase price of 32 rhesus monkeys is 3.963 million yuan. Based on this estimate, the purchase price of each rhesus monkey is about 123,000 yuan.
Monkey prices have fallen, and the number of IND applications has also dropped
In 2020, Sun Qiang began to "force" breed experimental monkeys. In his non-human primate research platform laboratory at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, more than 1,000 experimental monkeys were used. At that time, the high price of monkeys made it difficult to use experimental monkeys. But this batch of experimental monkeys bred by Sun Qiang will have to wait until 2024 to be put into research on assisted reproductive technology.
“The prices of experimental monkeys in the past two years have been too high. In 2019, the price of the experimental monkeys I purchased in Southeast Asia was more than 9,000 yuan. In the 2022 experimental monkey procurement project, the transaction price was higher than 180,000 yuan each, and we privately need to pay an additional 20,000 yuan each." Lin Ping (pseudonym), the head of a large domestic drug safety evaluation center, revealed to a Health Times reporter that at that time, the actual cost of the experimental monkeys had exceeded 20,000 yuan. Ten thousand yuan/piece.
According to the results announced in 2022 by the China Government Procurement Network's "China Institute of Food and Drug Control Experimental Cynomolgus Monkey Procurement Project", the prices for the two purchases of cynomolgus monkeys were 184,000 yuan/animal and 19.4 million yuan respectively. Ten thousand yuan/piece. In the 2020 project announcement, the budget for purchasing 400 experimental cynomolgus monkeys was 12 million yuan, or 30,000 yuan each. Preclinical research often requires a variety of experimental animal studies to verify each other. Generally, a rodent and a non-rodent animal (including dogs, rabbits, mini pigs and monkeys) are used to complete the efficacy, metabolism and toxicology of the candidate drug. In vivo evaluation experiments in animals. Experimental monkeys are non-rodent experimental animals with the highest cross-reactivity and relatively more accurate experimental results. In 2019, a study of 39 monoclonal antibody drugs produced cross-linked drugs in experimental animals.Reports of cross-reactivity showed: 82% cross-reactivity in cynomolgus monkey, 67% in marmoset, 17% in rabbit, 11% in dog, 7% in mouse, and 0% in rat.
Wang Lu, director of the Experimental Animal Center of Zhejiang University, said that in recent years, the price increase of experimental monkeys is mainly due to the increased demand for immune-related anti-tumor drug research and development, vaccine research and development, etc. In Sun Qiang's view, the rising monkey prices are caused by the explosive growth in the research and development of new macromolecule drugs at home and abroad. According to incomplete statistics, from 2018 to 2021, the number of innovative new drug clinical trial applications (IND) increased from 522 to 1,886, and the number of IND applications has increased year by year. There are 1,226 varieties of IND applications in 2022, which is a decrease from 2021.
The price of experimental monkeys has also dropped along with the number of IND applications.
According to my country's laboratory animal license inquiry and management system, there are 56 companies nationwide with valid production licenses that are applicable to monkeys. Health Times reporters randomly ranked nearly 10 experimental monkey production companies and learned that since 2023, the price of experimental monkeys has generally declined, and some monkey farms still have experimental monkeys available for order. The person in charge of a monkey farm revealed that the unit price of his company's experimental monkeys has dropped from 160,000 to 170,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan. The person in charge of the experimental animal center of a domestic university said that teachers at the school can already buy experimental monkeys worth 120,000 yuan each, which can ensure the basic supply of experimental monkeys in the school.
“The current decline in monkey prices reflects that the bubble of innovative drugs is gradually being burst.” Sun Qiang told a Health Times reporter that my country was originally an important exporter of experimental monkeys. With the development of innovative drugs in my country, the domestic experimental monkey market is in short supply. But behind the fierce demand, there are actually a lot of bubbles in the biomedical industry. The overall market share of my country's biopharmaceutical industry is limited. Hundreds of pharmaceutical companies have followed suit and invested in the research and development of PD-1 and anti-tumor drugs. Some companies are destined to be "squeezed out" in the process. The process of price decline also reflects that the entire industry is gradually returning to rationality and developing in a more benign direction.
The reasonable price of experimental monkeys should be reduced to 50,000 yuan/animal to 100,000 yuan/animal
Zhou Wenjiang, director of the Experimental Animal Center of the School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, said that the high price of monkeys has led to The research and development of new drugs consumes a lot of money in the preclinical stage. Calculated based on four dose groups: high-dose group, medium-dose group, low-dose group, and control group, at least 8 experimental monkeys are required in each dose group. In actual clinical trials of innovative drugs, the number of experimental monkeys required is generally 40. If the average price of each monkey is 200,000 yuan, this means that a trial will cost at least 8 million yuan.
For those engaged in basic scientific research, 200,000 yuan is almost a "sky-high price." If a project could be approved for scientific research funding of 500,000 to 600,000 yuan, in the experimental monkey market at that time, only three monkeys could be purchased.
In the past few years, because monkeys for new drug safety evaluation trials are too expensive, CRO companies (biopharmaceutical R&D cooperative enterprises) such as WuXi AppTec, Zhaoyan New Drugs, and Pharmaron Chemicals have begun to acquire monkey farms. Large biopharmaceutical companies purchased monkeys at high prices, and some small and medium-sized companies decided to suspend the research and development of innovative drugs.
Lin Ping revealed that innovative drug trials are risky, and the high monkey price will further increase costs. Some companies have decided not to start safety evaluation trials of innovative drugs for the time being. The return of experimental monkey prices to normal is of great significance to the smooth development of my country's innovative drug projects.
"Rough calculation, each monkey costs about 10,000 yuan." Sun Qiang said that the current experimental monkeys are mainly cynomolgus monkeys and rhesus monkeys aged 3 to 5 years old. But it takes roughly 6 to 10 years to raise a batch of experimental monkeys. If a monkey farm raises 10,000 experimental monkeys, and the age distribution is relatively even, the price of a single monkey is 100,000 yuan, which is a huge profit. However, if the price is less than 50,000 yuan per monkey, the monkey farm may face operating difficulties, which is more appropriate. The selling price is about 50,000 yuan/piece to 100,000 yuan/piece.
Health Times reporters learned from the person in charge of a monkey farm that has been acquired by a CRO company that the experimental monkeys they breed are for internal use, and the price is the internal price, which has been maintained at tens of thousands of yuan. .
“For scientists engaged in basic research, the price reduction of experimental monkeys is of course a good thing.” Wang Lu said that experimental monkeys are mainly used for neuroethology-related research, and the drop in prices means that some of them are due to high prices. Basic scientific research projects that have been suspended can be restarted.
The high price means that experimental monkeys can only be circulated among large pharmaceutical companies. For small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies, it is difficult. Correspondingly, the return of experimental monkey prices to rationality means the advancement of basic scientific research, and the opportunity for large, medium and small innovative pharmaceutical companies to re-enter the market.
Experimental monkeys should be in the hands of the country as a strategic resource
What makes Sun Qiang even more heartbroken is the aging breeding monkeys in the domestic monkey farm. After the price of monkeys soared, the person in charge of the monkey farm was faced with two options: one was to keep some experimental monkeys as breeding monkeys and breed them when they mature in four years. It takes 5 to 6 months for the monkeys to give birth to one child, and it is possible to recover the cost after breeding. It will take 6 to 10 years; another option is to sell quickly while the monkey price soars. Most domestic monkey farms have chosen the latter. The experimental monkeys that have been bred for many generations are entering old age. For the person in charge of the domestic monkey farm, "introducing breeding monkeys" has become crucial.
However, Sun Qiang believes that the method of importing breeding monkeys cannot solve the problems existing in my country's experimental monkey market in the long term.
In fact, the quality of experimental monkeys currently on the market varies, and there are even cases where wild monkeys are hunted and sold. Wild-caught monkeys mayCarrying pathogens such as tuberculosis virus, simian herpes virus, simian retrovirus, and malaria. Once the pathogen is carried, it means that the test is invalid and endangers human health. More importantly, the sale of wild-caught monkeys does not comply with the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Law.
Sun Qiang said that the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ internal experiments have carried out paternity testing of experimental monkeys, and it must be ensured that the experimental monkeys are bred in domestic monkey farms and not captured in the wild.
Unlike the guinea pig industry, which has many listed companies, the vast majority of guinea pig companies are still private enterprises, small in scale, and still lack a "lead monkey" company. If domestic monkey farms develop according to the short-term profit-seeking model for a long time, they will be unsustainable. In Sun Qiang’s view, although the experimental monkey market is relatively small, it is still a long-term and stable necessity for the entire biomedical industry. After the price of experimental monkeys falls, truly far-sighted experimental monkey companies will take this opportunity to establish large-scale, high-quality large-scale monkey farms.
Many experts said that experimental monkeys should be in the hands of the state as a strategic resource. In addition to the private model, the United States and other countries have established state-led experimental monkey breeding bases to respond to sudden public health crises. Lin Ping introduced that Hainan, Sichuan and other places are gradually promoting the construction of national non-primate breeding bases.
Some lab monkey companies still have lab monkeys waiting to be sold. However, this profiteering period for experimental monkeys is gradually coming to an end, and a normal and orderly innovative drug research and development environment is gradually returning.