Doctors’ group asks feds to block San Antonio from giving COVID-relief funds to Texas Biomed
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- San Antonio-based Texas Biomedical Research Institute has repeatedly drawn the ire of animal rights groups for its experiments on primates.
A physicians group has asked federal officials to investigate Thursday’s planned vote by San Antonio City Council to funnel $10 million in COVID-19 relief funds to Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
In a Monday letter, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine asked the Treasury Department and the Government Accountability Office to probe whether the city is misusing public funds if it allocates federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to the nonprofit facility, which experiments on primates as part of its research.
ARPA was created to support businesses, nonprofits and families who suffered financial harm during the COVID-19 pandemic. In its letter, the Physicians Committee — a group of 17,000 doctors — argues that Texas Biomed doesn’t qualify for the program. It further maintains that the foundation’s own documents show it previously gave back $2 million in pandemic relief funds received under a separate program.
City officials were unavailable for immediate comment on the letter. However, in a memo from December, city staff said they determined that Texas Biomed’s project falls under ARPA guidelines.
“We ask you to prevent Texas Biomed from using its significant political connections in San Antonio to illegally commandeer millions more in federal COVID-19 aid, to which ARPA rightfully entitles small businesses, government employees, social service organizations and struggling families,” wrote Dr. John J. Pippin, the Physicians Committee’s director of academic affairs.
Pippin further argues that the federally funded lab has failed to look after thousands of primates in its care, citing documented deaths and injuries over the years. The letter specifically mentions paperwork filed by Texas Biomed noting that 159 baboons in its captivity suffered amputations for frostbite during Winter Storm Uri.
Further, the Physician’s Committee maintains that council’s vote on the funding amounts to an end run around public scrutiny of the funds.
Last year, Texas Biomed asked for an $11 million municipal bond from the city of San Antonio to expand its campus infrastructure but withdrew its request in December after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others objected over the facility’s medical experiments on primates.
“Mayor [Ron] Nirenberg and the city council are attempting to avoid public input on this issue,” Pippin writes. “Giving money to a rich corporation that has failed to benefit public health rather than to deserving community programs is an abuse of taxpayer funds and violates ARPA funding requirements.”
In a statement, Texas Biomed spokeswoman Lisa Cruz said the facility’s work fighting diseases is expensive and justifies it accessing additional federal funding . She added that the ARPA money is one way it can ensure that modernizes its campus in a way that benefits its research and its animals.
“ARPA funding was designed to address economic impact and support public health infrastructure,” she said. “Texas Biomed is a good fit for ARPA funding as a federally designated critical infrastructure site deemed essential to local, state and national security, as well as public health and safety.”
PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said her group supports the Physicians Committee’s request, adding that its local supporters plan to show up at Thursday’s council meeting to raise objections to the funding.
“It’s pretty outrageous to see this moving forward since so many people in San Antonio make it clear they don’t support the bond,” she said.
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