• White Coat Waste (WCW) has exposed how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is paying a company co-founded and run by billionaire Moderna co-founder Robert Langer to conduct cruel experiments on dogs and pigs to test an experimental weight-loss drug.
• New federal contracts obtained by WCW via FOIA reveal that NIH-funded white coats are force-feeding beagles and pigs diet pills meant to replicate the effects of gastric bypass surgery.
• More than $1.2 million in tax money has been wasted on this project since last year.  Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s NIH doled out another $916,000 to the project in July 2025.
• WCW is on a mission to end all taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs and is the only animal protection group to close federal dog labs in almost 20 years.

UPDATE (11/14/25): In July 2025, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s NIH doled out another $916,400 to Syntis for dog testing of its weight loss pill and extended the funding through August 2026. 

ORIGINAL POST (4/15/25)

Working with the new Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), White Coat Waste (WCW) is already scoring major wins against millions in cruel and wasteful animal testing in the US and abroad.  

One of our top priorities for Trump and DOGE is slashing funding for dog and cat labs worldwide.  

Recently, we exposed federal contracts funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD) paying to torture 300 beagles PER WEEK in a Chinese lab. And we’ve been suing the NIH for the receipts of its decades of deadly septic shock experiments on puppies being conducted at a government lab in the Nation’s capital. 

Now, WCW’s newest investigation reveals another preposterous waste of taxpayer dollars by the NIH: testing a human weight loss drug on beagles.  

Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), WCW has uncovered how in 2024, the NIH forked over $322,000 to a biotech company co-founded and run by Robert Langer, the billionaire co-founder of Moderna.  

WCW investigations followed the money and uncovered that Langer’s Syntis Bio is wasting our tax dollars to test an experimental weight loss drug on dogs and pigs.

According to documents obtained by WCW via FOIA, Langer’s company is funneling tax money to a laboratory at Tufts University to force-feed beagles and pigs diet pills meant to replicate the effects of a gastric bypass surgery.  

The experiments are far from simple weight loss trials; these animals are constantly enduring various force-feedings, pokes, prods, and in many cases face a guaranteed and untimely death.

In just one year, the NIH has shelled out over $322,000 to Langer’s company for these outdated and cruel tests. According to the documents WCW obtained, the testing is slated to continue until August 2025, and funding could be extended. The company also has another $349,000 grant that apparently will be wasted on animal tests, including dog experiments.

Is this how you want your money spent?