PETA Calls On Pfizer To Explain Shift Of Animal Testing To China

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PETA Calls On Pfizer To Explain Shift Of Animal Testing To China

 

Group Concerned That Pfizer May Be Trying to Avoid U.S. Animal Welfare Laws

 

November 20, 2006

 

New York — A PETA member has filed a shareholder resolution on behalf of PETA

calling on pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to justify why the company is

increasingly exporting its animal testing to countries with no or poor animal

welfare standards. The resolution also asks that Pfizer assure stockholders that

these overseas laboratories are, at the very least, complying with animal

welfare standards mandated by the U.S. government.

 

A recent article in Forbes magazine discussed Pfizer's outsourcing to China,

where " scientists are cheap, lab animals plentiful, and pesky protesters held at

bay. " The article also cited a pharmaceutical industry executive who " admits

that Chinese testing companies lack quality control and high standards on

treatment. " Relocating research to a region with non-existent or weak animal

welfare standards is in direct conflict with Pfizer's stated commitment to

reducing, refining, and replacing its use of animals.

 

Last year, following an undercover investigation of Covance—a Princeton,

N.J.-based contract laboratory used by most major pharmaceutical companies,

where workers were seen striking and choking monkeys who did not receive any

medical attention for severe injuries—PETA submitted a resolution calling on

Pfizer to hold its contract laboratories to the standards outlined in the

company's animal welfare policy. The measure received enough votes for PETA to

resubmit the same resolution again this year.

 

" If pharmaceutical companies were oblivious to the rampant animal abuse going on

at a major contract laboratory in the U.S., how will they guarantee that animals

aren't abused at laboratories in China? " asks PETA Senior Vice President Mary

Beth Sweetland. " Pfizer shareholders deserve an explanation for this move and a

guarantee that research will be held to U.S. standards, at the very least. "

 

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=9231