Pharma's Market

Published: Thursday, 6 Aug 2009 | 2:15 PM ET

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On this website for something called "Bite Back" magazine a group identifying itself as MFAH Austria is claiming responsibility for the recent attacks on Swiss drugmaker Novartis and its employees, including CEO Dr. Daniel Vasella. Some folks here at CNBC came up with their own interpretation of the abbreviation M F A H (think about it), but it supposedly stands for Militant Forces Against Huntingdon. That's the animal lab company in the U.K. and here in New Jersey that the activists (many Pharma's Market readers prefer to call them terrorists) have been targeting for years.

Photo by: Zoom-Tirol Daniel Vasella's Hunting House.

The web posting also features this "anonymously" submitted picture presumably of Dr. Vasella's vacation home in Austria.

A Novartis spokesperson says the house appears to be the CEO's, but they're not absolutely certain.

The MFAH claims to have poured 16 gallons of gas on the house before setting it on fire.

And the writers of the responsibility claim renew their threat against Dr. Vasella writing, "Understand this: This will continue until you sever all ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences. We will attack your private life wherever possible. We will destroy your life."

The Novartis spokesperson says the company doesn't do business with HLS anymore.

I will save samples of the dozens of blogreader emails I've received about my previous post for another time, but one person emailed to complain that the poll on the previous post about animal testing is rigged. It's unscientific and that's made perfectly clear. But it's been interesting to watch the pendulum swing back and forth. At first, supporters of animal testing were ahead by a nine-to-one margin. Then a flurry of votes came in on the other side and it went nine-to-one in the opposite direction. And then thousands more votes suddenly flooded in saying animal testing is necessary and the results flipped back overwhelmingly yet again. Me thinks the passionate folks on both sides have been sending out email blitzes or something asking people to vote their way.

So, here's another "unscientific" poll.

Questions?  Comments?  and follow me on Twitter at mhuckman

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