Am I missing something? Or is this not the way to go about advancing your cause?
The online animal rights/welfare "magazine" has now posted a photo of the vandalism done at the family plot of Novartis Chairman and CEO Dr. Daniel Vasella. And the grave-robbers issue an ultimatum. They tell Dr. Vasella, supposedly in an email, he can recover the stolen cremated remains of his mother if the Swiss drug giant stops doing business with Huntingdon Life Sciences. It's a company that does lab tests on animals, but Novartis insists it hasn't had a relationship with HLS for years.
If Novartis doesn't somehow convince them that it has severed ties with HLS, then they threaten to flush the ashes of Dr. Vasella's mother "in the closest TOILET." The caps are theirs.
This is just the latest in a series of threats and attacks on Novartis senior executives and company property. Jim Edwards, who covers pharma at "BNET," reports that over the past couple of weeks there have been at least three more incidents stretching from Switzerland to Italy to Mexico.
Anyone who works or invests in biopharma knows that drug development is a risky business. Now, at least for some folks who work at Novartis and their loved ones, it's an increasingly dangerous business, too.
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