A Milestone Closer to Shuttering the Oregon National Primate Research Center

On Feb. 9, the Oregon Health & Science University Board of Directors voted to give the university’s president power to develop a plan with the National Institutes of Health toward closure of the primate center and a transition to sanctuary. The Board’s vote limits the breeding of monkeys. It also creates opportunities for  investments in nonanimal research methods.

A decade ago, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s efforts led to the closure of the New England Primate Research Center at Harvard University, by exposing the facility’s animal care violations and cruel experiments. These same concerning patterns are present at the seven remaining National Institutes of Health-funded primate experimentation laboratories in the United States. One of these centers, the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), has a staggering history of animal care noncompliance and Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations—26 AWA violations between 2014 and 2025.

Located in Beaverton, Oregon, and affiliated with OHSU, the facility houses more than 5,000 nonhuman primates, including rhesus macaques, Japanese macaques, hamadryas baboons, olive baboons, common squirrel monkeys, and endangered crab-eating macaques. After a series of highly publicized animal deaths and worker complaints,  growing concerns about the scientific limitations, ethical costs, and translational reliability of animal-based research intensified scrutiny of the center’s continued primate experimentation.

Following diligent work educating policymakers, the public, and leadership at OHSU and the NIH on the scientific limitations and ethical considerations of animal experiments, we have reached a decisive milestone in the process of closing the ONPRC. Let us look back on what brought us to this significant turning point in moving away from animal experimentation.

April 2013

• After public pressure and advocacy from the Physicians Committee and other groups, Harvard Medical School announced that it would close the New England Primate Research Center.

May 2015

• The New England Primate Research Center closed its doors on May 31, 2015.

November 2020

• Two monkeys were scalded to death after being put through a cage-washer at ONPRC, resulting in significant public outcry.
• Sixty-two primate center employees signed a petition calling out the dangerous workplace culture.

August 2022

• ONPRC workers protested dangerous working conditions at the center that they claimed endangered staff and animals.

November 2022

• OHSU paid nearly $38,000 in a settlement agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for AWA violations from 2018 through 2021.

January 2023

• Oregon Representative David Gomberg introduced a state bill that would require any primate center in Oregon to make annual reports to the Oregon state veterinarian about animal deaths, purchases, births, and sales.

July 2023

• Representative Gomberg’s Oregon state bill to require more transparency at ONPRC passed and became law.

March 2025

• The Physicians Committee launched a large-scale media campaign, urging the closure of the primate center as a condition of a potential merger between OHSU and Legacy Health—the two largest health care providers in Oregon. This campaign exposed the center’s AWA violations and unethical experiments.
• Physicians Committee President, Dr. Neal Barnard, and other Physicians Committee experts provided public comments to the Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) Community Review Board tasked with overseeing the merger.
• More than 25,000 Oregonians, including Governor Tina Kotek, shared their concerns about ONPRC and called for its closure.
• State and national surveys revealed that the public was opposed to monkey experiments.

April 2025

• The OHA Community Review Board unanimously voted against the merger between OHSU and Legacy Health.
• The Physicians Committee filed official complaints with OHSU, USDA, and the NIH asking for an invasive reproductive experiment on monkeys at ONPRC to be shut down.
• The Food and Drug Administration announced its decision to phase out animal use in favor of human-based methods.
• The NIH launched a ground-breaking initiative to prioritize human-based research while reducing animal use.

May 2025

• Oregon citizens and Physicians Committee experts provided public testimony at a hearing at the Oregon State Capitol on a dog and cat research bill, urging that language addressing the use of monkeys in research be included as part of an amendment.
• The Physicians Committee filed a complaint with the OHSU Research Integrity Office regarding ethical and scientific violations at ONPRC, and complaints with the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and the USDA Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare requesting an investigation of, and corrective action and penalties associated with, decades-long alcohol- and reproductive-related experiments on monkeys at ONPRC.

June 2025

• The Oregon Legislature passed a budget note with bipartisan support that required OHSU to conduct a full financial and ethical review of ONPRC and make a plan for the closure of the center, to be submitted to the legislature by January 2026.

July 2025

• The NIH announced it will no longer seek research proposals exclusively for projects involving animals.

August 2025

• The Physicians Committee sent a letter to the new president of OHSU discussing the issues associated with ONPRC and urging for closure of the center and a shift in research focus to human-based methods.
• Members of the Oregon State Legislature submitted a letter to the NIH Director, requesting NIH to discontinue support for any new primate experiments and breeding in Oregon.

November 2025

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its decision to phase out all research on monkeys.

January 2026

• Physicians Committee staff and supporters provided written and verbal comments in response to the published budget note report. The comments highlighted that the report failed to consider the changing scientific landscape, including the NIH’s prioritization of human-based research, as well as the report’s misrepresentation of critical information about closure costs and lack of meaningful collaboration with important stakeholders, such as sanctuaries or the NIH.
• OHSU held a board meeting open to the public on the issue of closing ONPRC. Several physician members and staff of the Physicians Committee provided comments.

February 2026

• The OHSU Board of Directors voted in favor of a resolution that allows OHSU leadership to negotiate a plan with the NIH to transition the primate center toward closure and conversion into a primate sanctuary. The resolution limits the breeding of monkeys over the next six months. It also opens the door to investments in nonanimal research methods.