Billionaire Elon Musk’s medical device company Neuralink faces a federal investigation over allegations of possible animal rights violations, amid complaints from employees that the company accelerated animal experiments causing many to die unnecessarily, according to documents seen by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and operations of the company.
Neuralink is developing a brain implant that it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again, as well as treat other neurological diseases, reports a local Arabic daily.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the Agriculture Department’s inspector general launched the previously unreported federal investigation in the past few months at the request of a federal prosecutor.
One of the sources said the investigation focused on violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which governs how researchers treat and experiment with animals.
The investigation came at a time of growing opposition by Neuralink employees to its animal testing; including complaints that pressure from CEO Musk to accelerate research had led to failed experiments, according to a Reuters review of dozens of company documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees.
Staff say that failed experiments have led to them being repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and subsequently killed.
The company documents include previously undisclosed letters, audio recordings, emails, presentations and reports. Musk and other Neuralink executives did not respond to requests for comment.
Reuters could not determine the full scope of the federal investigation or whether it involved the same alleged problems with animal experiments that the employees described in the Reuters interviews. A spokesman for the USDA Inspector General declined to comment.
US regulations do not limit the number of animals companies can use for research, leaving scientists free to decide when and how to use animals in experiments.
Neuralink has passed all USDA inspections of its facilities, as shown by its regulatory disclosures.
In all, the company has killed about 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, after experiments since 2018, according to records reviewed by Reuters and sources with direct knowledge of the company’s animal experiments.
The sources described this figure as a rough estimate because the company does not keep accurate records on how many animals it experiments with before killing them. Neuralink has also tested mice.
Many companies routinely use animals in experiments to advance human health care and are facing financial pressure to bring products to market quickly.
Animals are usually killed when experiments are completed, and are often subjected to post-kill necropsies for research purposes as well.
Musk caused a major uproar after his decision to buy Twitter in a huge $44 billion deal, as he reversed the decision and entered into a legal battle with the social media giant before moving forward with the deal, laying off many of its employees, and imposing fees on the blue verification mark to raise concern about The future of the company.