The documents have shocked a senior government adviser on animal experiments and led to calls for the work to be stopped. Even baboon X201m was not the success he was made out to be. His short life with a pig's heart was announced to the world in a dry academic paper for the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

It suggested that the baboon had led a perfectly normal life following its operation, stating: "Throughout the first 38 post-transplant days the baboon was active and energetic, moving freely about his enclosure."

But that is not the picture revealed in detailed scientific records of the baboon's last days, seen by the Daily Express.

Two weeks after his operation experts noted he was: "Quiet and huddled, reluctant to move, some abdominal breathing seen, slightly unsteady."

His condition rallied but in the last 10 days of his life he was often only "occasionally active". None of this is recorded in the company's published data. Neither is the fact that his pig heart had astonishingly grown to three times its weight by the time he was eventually "sacrificed".

Indeed the five other animals in the experiment lasted, on average, just 10 days - which again is not mentioned in the paper.

YESTERDAY, the company defended its description of the monkey in the paper. "We have video recordings made late in the animal's post-operative course at 25 days and 35. This footage shows an active and energetic animal, climbing in its enclosure."

Over the past five years Imutran has used the services of Huntingdon Life Sciences to perform more than 400 transplants on primates.

The experiments are aimed at overcoming the problems of rejection caused by the body's natural immune reaction to foreign organs such as hearts and kidneys.

Imutran became world leaders in the research when they developed "transgenic" organs which have been genetically altered to reduce the chances of rejection.

They have been testing ways of keeping the transplanted animals alive using a variety of drugs to suppress the immune system.

The rewards for success could be huge. Optimistic City forecasts are that the industry could be worth £6 billion by the year 2010. In particular, it will open a huge market for the immuno-suppressant drugs produced by Imutran's parent company, the Swiss drug giant, Novartis.

Ever since the mid-nineties the company has been declaring boldly that it is within a year of extending the tests to humans. Yet documents seen by the Daily Express suggest that it has given a highly selective account of its achievements.

A paper published in the journal of Transplant Proceedings last year claimed the company had made a key breakthrough in eradicating the problem of "hyperacute" rejection - in which the monkey's immune system reacts instantly against the donated pig heart.

It said that a study of nine baboons who had a pig heart sewn onto their arteries showed that no "transgenic heart underwent hyperacute rejection". But secret data shows the experiment was actually carried out on 22 baboons. The company picked nine out of the ten baboons who had lived longest, probably because they were on different drug regimes. Two of those excluded from the published paper died after suffering a "hyperacute" rejection to the organ.

The reality that emerges is that the company is still a long way off making xenotransplantation work in humans.

The company's raw data from the two major experiments carried out at Huntingdon shows that, on average, a baboon survives only seven days after having its heart replaced by that of a pig.

AND it is clear the longest survivors were kept alive with massive doses of drugs. They have had more success transplanting kidneys into monkeys, but new problems have been discovered, such as cancer and internal bleeding, possibly caused by the drugs.

The crisis came to a head at a recent meeting between Imutran and senior managers in Novartis. An 18-month deadline was set for the research to show "substantial" increases in survival rates.

The lack of progress will increase pressure on the company to justify its experiments. By law, vivisection is only licenced if the benefit to mankind outweighs the harm to animals.

Until now, little has been known about the treatment of the monkeys inside Huntingdon Life Sciences. Publicly, Imutran insists they "don't suffer". But its own documents show for the first time the true horrifying extent of the ordeal endured by the monkeys.

They are transported halfway across the globe in tiny cages. In one shipment three animals died - probably from suffocation - in a 35-hour trip from the Philippines. All the animals used for xenotransplantation experiments at HLS die or are killed. It can be a long exit - a research goal is to keep the animals alive as long as possible after transplant.

Clinical conditions are recorded by scientists. Animals are described as quiet, huddled, shivering, unsteady, in spasm, vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. Some have blood or puss seeping from wounds.

The baboon with a pig's heart transplanted onto its neck had swelling around the transplant and "yellow fluid around wound".

SOME animals are found dead in their cages and others are "sacrificed" when their condition goes past the point of no return. Many deaths are wasteful. In one experiment, 33 out of 61 monkeys died within 24 hours of a transplant due to "technical failures". The company's correspondence shows an average of one in five animals lost this way.

Imutran says its work is monitored by the Home Office and regards animal welfare as "very important". There is much evidence of shoddy work inside the centre. The documents show animals have been wrongly re-used in experiments, medicines have been left unlabelled and uncapped, and on hundreds of occasions scientists have failed to take readings and measurements from animals following operations.

Worse still, there are mistakes which lead to painful deaths. A monkey perished because a swab had been left inside his wound during the operation, causing his spleen to go septic. Another had to be "sacrificed" when researchers discovered the pig kidney it was to be given had been frozen by mistake.

A female monkey had to be euthanised the day after she was given a dose of a drug four times higher than recommended.

The records note that she was shaking and grinding her teeth. Imutran later wrote to the laboratory, saying the mistake was "unacceptable".

© Express Newspapers, 2000  received via LineOne News Service

Text of 22 September article                        Text of 28 September article

Campaign for Responsible Transplantation Press Release Sept 21