A Scottish Enterprise life sciences body has been criticised for ploughing £8 million of public funds into helping Scotland become a global centre for the breeding of humanised mice for experimentation.

The money has been used to help create a unique breed of genetically modified mice which are more human-like in their responses, in an attempt to transform the safety evaluation and development of new drugs.

The humanised mouse programme claims to have made the first mouse to have four human gene changes – the quadruple humanised transgenic mouse.

The designer mice will be further developed at a specialist breeding unit being established in Edinburgh by one of the largest commercial laboratory rodent providers in the world.

However, the European Parliament is currently considering legislation limiting animal testing, which could mean all member states being forced to ensure that if a legally recognised alternative is available it has to be used instead. MEPs want all “severely” painful procedures to be scientifically justified.

Michael Balls, emeritus professor of medical cell biology at the University of Nottingham, said the money would have been better spent on more modern approaches to clinical research, working with humans, which can be done ethically and safely.

Prof Balls, chairman of the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (Frame) and father of Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: “The best model for man is man.

“With humanised mice, there may be occasions when such mice could be useful, but I would say the variation in the human disease and the complexity are going to be so important that you might end up spending your £8m and another £8m and end up being disappointed.”

An Advocates for Animals official said: “There are other ways of testing which do not use living non-human animals, such as the use of post-mortem tissues donated by patients.”

New York-based Taconic, which is developing the Scottish unit, says it will set up in Summerhall in Edinburgh, creating up to 20 jobs.

But there is further concern that the money to be made from the humanised mice, which cost up to £320 each, will go to the US. The market for the technologies is estimated to be more than £1.5bn.

Scottish Enterprise will receive royalties on sales, which are expected to be re-invested in this and other programmes, but it will not disclose the financial terms nor say how it expects Scotland will financially benefit.

A Scottish Enterprise spokeswoman said the project offers significant economic potential for Scotland and would “help build on Scotland’s position as a world class location for life sciences”.

Dr Tom Shepherd, the Glaswegian chief executive of CXR bisociences, which was formed as a £4m spin-out from the University of Dundee, says the project is “ground-breaking” and “will transform pharmaceutical research and chemical safety assessment”.