GSK investors opt for anonymity in face of animal extremist threat
pharmafile | May 30, 2006 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
GlaxoSmithKline shareholders are using an administrative loophole to protect themselves in the face of a threatening letter campaign by animal activists.
The move is the latest blow to be struck against the extremists, with momentum seemingly growing behind a movement to protect medical research in the UK, including an unprecedented endorsement from Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The latest move has seen 800 GSK investors switch their shares into anonymous 'nominee' accounts that stop their details appearing on publicly available registers.
More than 3,000 small investors have enquired about transferring their shares into a nominee account, either by using GSK's corporate nominee service or through their own broker.
Their actions follow letters from extremists threatening to publish GSK shareholders' personal details online if they did not sell their shares in the pharma company.
The letter campaign is driven by GSK's use of contract research organisation Huntingdon Life Sciences, a long-running target for the extremists.
GSK chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said: "As a company, we have become used to these offensive gestures, but this attack on our shareholders represents a new variation of intimidation and harassment.
"I have, though, been heartened by the response of our shareholders. Their courage safeguards their democratic right to invest in our company. It also epitomises the changing nature of the debate on animal research in this country."
GSK has taken further steps to protect its investors and halt the letter campaign by securing an injunction against unknown animal rights extremists to stop them from further contacting or harassing its private shareholders.
The injunction prohibits animal activists from making threats to publish shareholders' personal details on any website as well as making any further contact.
Breaches of the injunction could lead to a prosecution for contempt of court, for which offenders could face a prison sentence.
GSK has around 170,000 individual shareholders but according to police investigating the campaign, only a few hundred of them have received the threatening letters.
Such intimidation tactics could be prevented in the future under the proposed Company Law Reform Bill, which is currently with the House of Lords.
If passed into law, it would allow company directors to keep their home addresses private, and would prevent companies from releasing the names and details of their shareholders unless for a legitimate reason.
The government has also said it will consider amending the Bill to prevent access to personal shareholder data in the future to those who used it inappropriately.
Prime Minister Tony Blair recently added his voice to those in support of animal tests, saying it was time for the silent majority to take a stand against the intimidation and violence used by extremists.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Blair said he had signed an online petition in support of animal testing – a break from prime ministerial tradition.
Acknowledging this he said: "It [is a] sign of just how important I believe it is that as many people as possible stand up against the tiny group of extremists threatening medical research and advances in this country.
"Hundreds of millions of people in the UK and around the world today are alive and healthy because of the pioneering work of our scientists and researchers.Many millions more will be spared an early death or a life of pain because of the research now under way. They deserve our support. And they should get it."
In another sign that the tide may be turning in favour of the medical researchers, major City investors said they would not be intimidated by the latest threats.
UK pharmaceutical industry body the ABPI welcomed the new support and said it was reassured by the Prime Minister's willingness to introduce further new laws to stop the shareholder intimidation.
Both these moves represent a further determination by Britain's leaders – both in and beyond the medical research community – to stand up against the extremists who threaten, harass and intimidate, said the organisation's director general Dr Richard Barker.
Laws introduced in 2005 seem to be having an effect on the number of violent attacks on animal testing centres and people associated with them. ABPI figures show there were 85 instances of damage to property in 2005, compared with 177 the previous year. Even more encouragingly, only 10 were recorded in the last three months of the year – a significant drop on each of the other quarters.
