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| When Botox is injected into animals, the drug's active ingredient can cause paralysis, prolonged suffering, and death by suffocation. © iStock.com |
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In a move designed to pressure Allergan, Inc., to stop using the deadly Lethal Dose 50 Percent (LD50) Test to assess the potency of its flagship product, Botox® Cosmetic, The HSUS, along with the Calvert Asset Management Company, Inc. (Calvert), recently submitted a resolution to be voted on by the company's shareholders.
This is the second consecutive year that The HSUS and Calvert have submitted a resolution to Allergan as part of a multi-year shareholder advocacy strategy.
Prudent Proposal
The shareholder resolution merely asks Allergan to "issue a statement, updated annually … describing the Company's recent activities and future plans in pursuit of its stated goal of eliminating the animal-based LD50 test from the manufacturing process of Botox .…" Allergan could satisfy this request by simply expanding and updating an April 2007 statement on its website. The statement does include a few general sentences on the company's move towards alternative methods, but is largely a defense of its Botox testing practices.
To date, Allergan has stood by its 2007 statement as sufficient disclosure on the issue of alternatives, and has, in general, refused to cooperate with The HSUS as it pursues its as yet unspecified efforts to develop alternative methods.
Conscience Vote
There are administrative hurdles to resubmitting a shareholder resolution after the initial proposal. To resubmit the following year, a resolution must receive at least a 3 percent favorable vote its first year. The second year it must gain at least 6 percent in favor, and every year after that it must reach at least 10 percent.
Since most shareholders typically sign over their vote to the board of directors (essentially allowing the board to make the decision for them) and since the board of directors typically votes against resolutions, the percentage of favorable votes is usually well below the 50 percent majority needed for a resolution to pass.
Nevertheless, resolutions are significant because they raise awareness of the issue among shareholders and boards, while placing increasing pressure on the company to resolve the issue.
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Animals are killed to test every new batch of Botox. © iStock.com |
Multi-Year Momentum
At Allergan's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May 2008, The HSUS's first resolution garnered a 5.7 percent vote, comfortably exceeding the minimum threshold of 3 percent. The HSUS is confident that the second resolution will exceed the minimum vote needed—6 percent—when it is voted on at Allergan's AGM in May 2009.
The HSUS plans to continue to work with Calvert to re-introduce the resolution at Allergan's future annual meetings until they comply with the request, or until an alternative testing methods has been developed.
Deadly Test
Allergan currently uses the LD50 test to assess the potency of batches of Botox by finding the minimum amount of the toxin that will kill 50 percent of a test group of animals within 3-4 days.
When Botox's active ingredient—the same nerve toxin that causes botulism—is injected into animals, it can cause paralysis and prolonged suffering before death. Death results from suffocation after the breathing muscles become paralyzed.
“Our resolution simply asks Allergan for a modest level of public disclosure as it works to develop an alternative to an animal test that was developed in the 1920s,” explained The HSUS's vice president for animal research issues, Martin Stephens, Ph.D. “Consumers who purchase Allergan products deserve to know what good-faith efforts the company is making to get beyond the status quo.”
Updated Feb. 2, 2009.
