DRUGS: No Monkey Shines

• Share

Ever since the ancients labeled them kin to Hanuman. demigod king of the monkeys, India's monkeys have been prolific, pampered pests. But starting in 1951, when scientists discovered that rhesus monkey kidneys were ideal for making polio vaccines, hordes of the primates were lured from the Assam jungles to worthy ends in the laboratories of the world. Shipping 150,000 small brown monkeys annually to 30 countries (80% to the U.S.), India earned $3,000,000 a year in foreign exchange; four big exporters and 5,000 trappers prospered, and many airlines cashed in on the boom by flying out planeloads of monkeys.

Last month the profitable monkey business was monkeyed with. The Indian government ruled that only monkeys weighing more than 6 Ibs. (v. the old 4-to-6-lb. standard) can be shipped, and only at a rate of five a crate, compared to the previous dozen. The government's official view was that smaller monkeys are not necessary for polio vaccine. But unofficially, the reason was increasing religious pressure from India's monkey deifiers. plus a dark fear that other countries really use the monkeys for rocket and radiation research. Whatever the reason, by last week the market was effectively killed. Unable to find enough six-pounders, hundreds of trappers went out of business in India, cut off all but a fraction of the monkey supply. And while U.S. drug houses have passed the peak of polio vaccine demand, the Indian ruling was a disaster to Britain, which is still forced to limit its small vaccine supply to children under ten.