February 13, 2020
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced it received 676 pages of records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showing that the agency paid thousands of dollars to a California-based firm to purchase organs from aborted human fetuses to create “humanized mice” for HIV research.
The records show that NIH paid at least $18,100 between December 2016 and August 2018 to Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) for livers and thymuses from second trimester aborted fetuses. They include at least 26 such purchases from ABR by Dr. Kim Hasenkrug, senior investigator at the NIH lab in Hamilton, Montana.
Purchase orders associated with the transactions state: “These tissues, liver and thymus, are required [by] Ron Messer for ongoing studies of HIV in the Hasenkrug Lab. Our mice will be ready for reconstitution soon.”
Beginning with a December 21, 2016, payment to ABR and running through April 2018, the records show that a fetal liver and thymus set costs $680, and payment was due upon receipt. On May 23, 2018, the cost increased to $750.
The records also include “Tissue Acquisition Invoices” and sales receipts issued by ABR. Payment was made by credit card.
Judicial Watch received the records through a March 2019 lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services for all contracts and related documentation between the FDA and Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) for the provision of human fetal tissue to be used in humanized mice research (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department Health and Human Services (No. 1:19-cv-00876)).
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