Joe Lonsdale's 8VC put $20M into Safer Human Medicine, a startup planning to breed 30,000 research monkeys in the US
What's the deal? 8VC, the venture firm of Joe Lonsdale, invested $20 million in 2023 in Safer Human Medicine (SHM), a startup that aims to breed some 30,000 macaques for US medical research, Forbes reported on 27 October, citing multiple sources. SHM has raised $28 million in total. 8VC does not list the company in its portfolio, but Lonsdale described the bet on Jack Altman's podcast in May: "There's not nearly enough primates now. No one will touch it. So we started a company," he said, calling it "pro-human".
The case for it: Supporters point to a supply squeeze. China, which supplied about 60% of the monkeys used in US biomedical research, banned primate exports in 2020, and prices reportedly rose from about $3,000 to $20,000 per animal. SHM founder Jim Harkness calls primates "the rare earth minerals of biotech", and Lonsdale argues a domestic supply allows stricter animal-welfare oversight than imports. Researchers such as Texas A&M's Kenneth Ramos say complex drugs still need testing in a system close to human physiology, even after the FDA dropped its blanket animal-testing requirement in 2023.
The case against: Animal-welfare groups including PETA and the Animal Welfare Institute oppose the plan, and residents of Bainbridge, Georgia, organised against SHM's proposed facility there. The county development authority backed out of an incentive package in 2024, SHM sued, and the case is ongoing, so the Bainbridge site is not built. Forbes also notes Harkness was previously COO of Envigo, whose Virginia beagle facility was shut down before parent Inotiv pleaded guilty and paid a record $35 million; Harkness was never charged. SHM now runs a holding and quarantine facility in LaBelle, Florida, which it bought in 2025.
Read more: Forbes, Science, Animal Welfare Institute, Lonsdale clip on X
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