Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing unnecessary suffering and death, according to documents. reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and the company’s operations.
Neuralink Corp is developing a brain implant that it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological diseases.
The federal probe, which has not been previously reported, was opened in recent months by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspector general at the request of a federal prosecutor, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.
The investigation, one of the sources said, focuses on violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates how researchers treat and test certain animals.
The investigation reportedly comes at a time of growing employee dissent over Neuralink’s animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Elon Musk to speed up development has resulted in flawed experiments, according to a Reuters review of several Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 people, employees and former employees.
Such failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed, officials say.