Glaxo CEO: Animal Rights Activists Are “Despicable Cowards”
GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Jean-Pierre Garnier recently condemned animal rights activists, saying they were causing his and other firms to divert sizable sums that could be spent on drug discovery and research but must now be spent on security in Great Britain.
Garnier said that his company alone spends tens of millions of pounds on protecting facilities and individuals from animal rights extremists. Garnier said,
This is money that could be spent on research and development of new drugs. Britain has to do more with its police and the judicial system because we are being terrorized.
Garnier also said that a number of firms are considering moving their research staffs out of Great Britain or considering avoiding the country for future investment. He said,
I work hard to bring in investment to the United Kingdom and have talked many times to friends who are in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses about moving here. But there is one issue that exists only in the UK and nowhere else has a comparative effect from extreme actions by animal rights activists.
Glaxo employs nearly 6,000 people in research throughout Great Britain, and Garnier said he takes the threats against those employees personally,
I take it very personally. When you general counsel has to go into hiding in some apartment and has to move out of his house with his young children because he has been threatened, you do take that personally.
Source:
Glaxo chief: animal rights cowards are terrorizing us. Rosie Murray-West, Telegraph (UK), July 28, 2004.
Tags: GlaxoSmithKline, Great Britain, Terrorism