WHITE COAT WASTE PROJECT, INC. v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES and NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
The White Coat Waste Project (WCW) sued the National Institutes of Health (NIH), alleging that the NIH is illegally exempting foreign animal laboratories from oversight. Under relevant federal law, any lab that conducts animal experiments using American taxpayer funds via the NIH must have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to monitor the treatment of animals. While IACUCs have been widely criticized for failing to sufficiently exercise their responsibilities, WCW argues that NIH has violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not enforcing that requirement for foreign labs that receive NIH funding. Plaintiff is seeking declaratory judgment.
[To accompany Federal Case Law Update "Advocacy Organization Sues NIH for Failing to Exercise Proper Oversight of Foreign Labs that Receive American Tax Dollars" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 119.]