Price of lab monkeys in China soars to W38m amid drug development boom

As China's drug development boom intensifies, prices for lab monkeys — essential for preclinical trials — are surging again, reprising a phenomenon last seen at its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic roughly three years ago.

Chinese financial outlet Yicai recently cited industry sources saying the unit price of crab-eating macaques, also known as cynomolgus monkeys, has jumped to around 200,000 yuan ($29,500), or about 38 million won. A research and development director at a biopharmaceutical company said the high cost was not even the biggest problem. "The bigger issue is that supply simply isn't there," the director said. Another R&D official at a pharmaceutical company said quotes had already reached 200,000 yuan and that booking slots for lab monkeys at contract research organizations this year were nearly all taken.

An analysis of crab-eating macaque procurement bid results published on China's government procurement network showed a clear upward price trend. In the first procurement round announced May 1, 2025, the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control awarded a contract at 92,000 yuan per animal. A March 5 procurement by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences — covering 450 animals aged 2.8 to 5 years and screened for five pathogens including tuberculosis and B virus — totaled 58.95 million yuan, or 131,000 yuan per animal. By June 16, a 40-animal procurement by the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control had jumped to 178,000 yuan per animal. In roughly a year, the unit price had nearly doubled.

This is not the first time lab monkey prices have spiked. During the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022, supply chain disruptions combined with surging demand for drug development pushed prices from below 50,000 yuan to over 200,000 yuan at their peak. Prices then tumbled below 100,000 yuan in 2023 as funding for innovative drug companies dried up and pharmaceutical firms cut R&D spending. According to Sun Chang, a researcher affiliated with Sun Yat-sen University, prices had fallen as low as 75,000 yuan per animal before May 2025.

Structural supply constraints underlie the price rebound. It typically takes six to seven years for a crab-eating macaque to go from weaning — around six months of age — to the two-to-three-year-old range suitable for experiments. Females reach sexual maturity at around age four, but their reproductive window spans only 13 to 16 years, with most entering menopause after age 17 to 20. At current market prices above 100,000 yuan per animal, most breeders have adopted a strategy of selling any available post-weaned animals rather than holding them back for breeding.

Research by Zhejiang Shangzheng Securities also flagged serious aging within China's domestic crab-eating macaque population and low shipment rates. An anonymous industry source told the outlet that some contract research organizations are suspected of deliberately hoarding monkeys to drive up prices.

Rising monkey prices translate directly into higher drug development costs. Safety evaluations typically require 18 animals for pharmacokinetic tests and 40 for toxicokinetic tests, for a combined total of 58 animals per program.

One R&D official noted that costs could be trimmed by running pharmacokinetic assessments alongside toxicokinetic tests rather than conducting them separately. The total cost of preclinical research required for an investigational new drug application is estimated at around 20 million yuan — already exceeding the cost of a Phase 1 clinical trial in humans.

Contract research organizations with stable lab monkey supplies, meanwhile, are reaping the windfall. Rising monkey prices, combined with fair-value gains from natural population growth, helped leading CRO Zhaoyuan Xinyi post net profit three times higher than the prior year in 2025; the figure jumped 4.8 times in the first quarter of 2026. Since 2018, major CROs have raced to acquire monkey breeding facilities and build their own reproduction bases, and most of China's domestic lab monkey supply is now concentrated in their hands.