Crab blood to remain big pharma's standard as industry group rejects substitute

Animal rights groups have been pushing a synthetic alternative to horseshoe crab blood in drug safety testing

Horseshoe crabs’ icy-blue blood will remain the drug industry’s standard for safety tests after a powerful US group ditched a plan to give equal status to a synthetic substitute pushed by Swiss biotech Lonza and animal welfare groups.

The crabs’ copper-rich blood clots in the presence of bacterial endotoxins and has long been used in tests to detect contamination in shots and infusions.

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from World news | The Guardian