US agency halts funding for medical research using chimps

WASHINGTON - The National Institutes of Health, America's foremost medical research agency, said Wednesday it no longer would fund studies involving chimpanzees, as it prepares to revise its policies on using the primates.

The NIH said it also plans to review all ongoing studies using chimpanzees, although such projects already are rare. Of the 94,000 NIH-funded projects in 2011, only 53 used the primates.