The official system for handling the approval of the use of animals in biomedical research in Germany ‘is in disarray’, according to legal experts.
In an opinion article written for EARA, Klaus Gärditz and Matthias Dombert, both professors of public law, said that competent authorities were increasingly interpreting the law in different ways, leading to inconsistency and delays, seriously hampering research studies.
In one example of delays from last year, the courts ordered the city of Bremen to temporarily allow neuroscience research, using rats and macaques, beyond the end of its approval period in order to avoid damaging the studies.
As a solution to the problems, the experts called for a strengthening of the resources of the national committee, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, which advises the competent authorities on best practice.
“Not only does biomedical research success in Germany depend on this legal certainty, but also the effectiveness of animal protection,” they concluded.