Animal import bans will hamper drug research

VITAL medical research is being “choked off” because airlines and ferry companies are refusing to bring animals into the country for testing in the face of pressure from animals’ rights activists, a former science minister has warned.

Lord Drayson, who was a minister in the last Labour government, said “extremists” had “picked off” the companies, which have now pulled out of transporting laboratory mice and other animals.

Newspaper reports have suggested that Stena Line had followed DFDS Seaways and P&O Ferries in halting the carriage of test animals, closing the last sea route for medical researchers.

Lord Drayson said that unless the government took action to restore the import of test animals, university research in the UK would “wither” and patients needing new treatments would die.

Science minister David Willetts said the government was seeking an agreement in which the life sciences industry would agree a code of practice on the transport of animals and in return the transport industry would resume the trade.