Before it became an independent foundation on December 7, 1994, it was part of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research.
The BPRC houses rhesus macaques and marmosets to be used in biomedical research involving AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, tuberculosis and auto-immune diseases.
In 2002 the Dutch government forbade any further testing on chimpanzees, though it allowed trials already in progress to end.
Protestors gather regularly in front of the BPRC gates and there are calls in the Dutch parliament to close the centre.
[2] In September 2018, undercover images showed animal abuse at this center leading to questions in the Dutch Parlement.