Better late than never — some British pharmaceutical companies recently decided they’re no longer going to stand by and twiddle their thumbs while animal activists pick off companies like Huntingdon Life Sciences. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry announced that its members would begin taking their business away from banks and other financial institutions which cave to the demands of animal rights activists.
Unable to make much of a dent in the companies themselves, animal rights activists have recently begun going after the banks and financial institutions that companies like HLS rely on. So far, that strategy has worked better than anyone anticipated, with HLS’s long term survival seriously in doubt thanks to the activist campaign against banks and stockbrokers doing business with HLS.
ABPI director-general Trevor Jones told Reuters, “If they are not prepared to support a member of our industry (Huntingdon), we must ask if they are the people we should rely on for advice and to invest our cash. That debate is taking place right now.”
In April, Britain’s Association of Medical Research Charities transferred its accounts to protest its bank’s decision to cut all financial ties with HLS.
Because of the strong pound, many foreign pharmaceutical firms — especially those located in Japan — have sizable investments in Great Britain, and Jones said that caving in to the animal rights activists could cause hundreds of millions of pounds of pharmaceutical investments to find safer havens.
Besides which, as numerous companies which have tried to meet the activists halfway have learned, banks and financial institutions are buying themselves a temporary peace but ensuring they will be the main targets in the long term war being waged by activists. Once they are finished with HLS and turn their sites to other companies, don’t think for a second they will forget how easy it was to make banks and stockbrokers jump ship. Citibank, HSBC, and others who quickly caved are likely to find themselves the constant target of activist threats.
Source:
UK drug firms issue warning to banks. The BBC, May 1, 2001.
UK drug firms may boycott banks in animals row. Reuters, May 1, 2001.