A report on the ethical reputations of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies which gives UK-based multinational GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) the top score, has been heavily criticised for ignoring one of the most contentious ethical issues around, animal testing. Ethically ranking animal-testing companies without considering animal suffering is deeply misleading, says non-animal research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust (1). The ethical ranking was recently profiled (30 May) in a series of online industry journals such as DrugResearcher.com which called GSK 'big pharma's Mother Theresa' (2). That's ethical whitewashing, says the Dr Hadwen Trust.

The recently-released EthicalQuote report by Geneva-based ethical-monitoring firm Covalence (3), claims to represent the latest ethical evaluation of the top twenty multinationals, with ten companies selected for the top spots. In the category of Best Ethical Quote for pharmaceutical companies, one of the world's most notorious animal-testing companies, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), makes the top score of 326 despite being the focus of anti-vivisection boycott campaigns around the globe because of its massive animal testing and research programme. GSK was joined at the top by two more animal-testers, Bristol-Myers Squibb (second place scoring 315) and Johnson & Johnson (third place scoring 298).


Covalence claims that the ethical scores are calculated by assessing both positive and negative news. However, whilst the negative news categories include topics such as environmental impact, wages and intellectual property rights, the highly contentious issue of animal testing doesn't appear at all. Neither does a company’s degree of financial investment in developing non-animal research tests appear in the positive news scale (4).

All three companies are well known for their animal testing which includes invasive experiments on animals such as monkeys, dogs and primates

Says Wendy Higgins at the Dr Hadwen Trust:

"Ranking multinationals by their ethical performance is essential so that consumers and investors can support companies genuinely making an effort to conduct business with integrity. But it is completely irresponsible to ignore animal testing. The plight of laboratory animals inside the labs of these and other companies, is a major cause of concern for consumers and campaigning groups around the world. The report claims to take pressure groups into account when ranking companies, but it has clearly decided to simply ignore one of the biggest boycott campaigns on the planet by excluding animal testing. GlaxoSmithKline conducts painful and lethal experiments on countless dogs, monkeys, rabbits and rodents each year and their immense suffering should count for something. To blatantly dismiss it is deeply misleading and offensive."

In 2007, GSK's lab in the USA experimented on macaque monkeys to study osteoporosis (5). The monkeys had their ovaries suppressed by drugs and were then dosed with a test drug that might play a role in treating osteoporosis. GSK researchers studied the effects of the drugs on the monkeys’ bones. Other experiments have included deliberately inflicting surgical wounds on mice, some of which were purposefully infected with bacteria and left untreated for up to one week so GSK researchers could study the infection (6).

In an experiment published in 2006, Bristol-Myers Squibb crushed the nerves to the right hind leg of rats so that their muscles wasted (7). After the surgery, the rats were unable to move their leg and were left in this condition for 7 days whilst researchers tested different treatments. Johnson and Johnson also conduct highly invasive animal experiments. In 2006 they used dogs to study a drug developed to treat anxiety in humans (8). The dogs were dosed with the drug and then their metabolism monitored to assess the effects of the drug. They will almost certainly have been killed for a post mortem at the end of the study. Also in 2006, Johnson & Johnson's researchers used a range of chemicals to cause pain, inflammation and itching in the ears and skin of mice, followed by dosing the mice with experimental anti-fungal treatments (9). Some mice were left untreated to suffer the painful effects of the chemicals.



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Notes

1. The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK's leading non-animal medical research charity funding exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments. www.drhadwentrust.org
2. DrugResearcher.com 30 May 2007  http://www.drugresearcher.com/news/ng.asp?n=76941&m=1DRG530&c=vmopdgrdtskxywz
3. The report can be downloaded in PDF at  http://www.covalence.ch/docs/CovalenceEthicalRankingQ1-2007_PressRelease_26.04.2007.pdf
4. Best EthicalQuote Score is calculated by subtracting negative news from positive news, cumulated from 1 January 2002 to 31 March 2007. Covalence claims that its ethical quotation system (EthicalQuote) is a reputation index based on quantifying qualitative data, which are classified according to 45 criteria of business contribution. The system integrates documents found among media, enterprise, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other sources, measure the historical evolution of the reputation of companies regarding ethical issues.
5. Department of Musculoskeletal Diseases, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, USA, 2007. A highly potent inhibitor of cathepsin K (relacatib) reduces biomarkers of bone resorption both in vitro and in an acute model of elecated bone turnover in vivo in monkeys. Bone 40(1):122-31
6. GSK Pharmaceuticals, Pennsylvania, USA, 2006. Use of the surgical wound infection model to determine the efficacious dosing regimen of retapamulin, a novel topical antibiotic. Antibicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 50(11):3886-88
7. Pharmaceutical Research Institute, BMS, New Jersey, USA, 2006. Reduction of skeletal muscle atrophy by a proteasome inhibitor in a rat model of denervation. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 231:335-41
8. J&J Pharmaceutical Research and Development, PA, USA, 2006 Metabolism of the new anxiolytic agent, a pyrido[1,2-]benzimidazole (PBI) analog (RWJ-53050), in rat and human hepatic S9 fractions, and in dog; identification of cytochrome p450 isoforms mediated in the human microsomal metabolism. European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, 31(4):277-83
9. Preclinical Pharmacology, Skin Research Center, J&J Consumer Products, NJ, USA, 2006. Anti-inflammatory and anti-itch activity of sertaconazole nitrate. Archives of Dermatology Research, 298:191-99