Spontaneous Pathology of the Laboratory Non-Human Primate - Chapter 2: Regulations and ethics concerning the use of non-human primates in research

Non-human primates (NHPs) play an integral part in biomedical research and drug development. NHPs are developmentally and physiologically closely related to humans and are immunologically well-characterized. As such, NHPs as animal models have significantly advanced our understanding of numerous human diseases and continue to be the most relevant model in the safety evaluation of new drugs, mainly biopharmaceuticals. However, their close phylogenetic relationship with humans raises ethical concerns. This chapter briefly discusses regulatory considerations in NHP use in biomedical research and drug development as well as their ethical use within the scientific arena.