Opponents of Covance’s Chandler facility say they’ll remain active even as the drug development services company begins shutting down the $150 million facility this year.
Animal rights activists say they’ll work to adopt animals or to protest any similar user from attempting to set up similar operations in the controversial facility that opened three years ago.
Activists considered Covance’s decision to close only a partial victory, said Jan McClellan, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Covance.
“We’re relieved but not completely because we don’t know what’s being left at that site,” McCellan said. “Things may not show up until after they’re gone.”
The group said chemicals or animal waste that flows into city sewers may be detected only in the future.
The company decided to close the facility because of changes in the pharmaceutical industry, Covance spokeswoman Melissa Thompson said. Companies are reducing research and development budgets, which has led them to do more in-house testing as an interim step to determine if more rigorous study is justified, she said. The closure is estimated to save Covance $20 million a year.
Covance will wind down operations by the end of the year and move to sell the 77-acre site and its 280,000-square-foot building near the Chandler Municipal Airport.
The company is offering transition assistance to its 130 Chandler employees and encouraging them to apply for jobs elsewhere.
Citizens Against Covance wants to work with adoption agencies and primate refuges to place animals from the Chandler facility when it closes, McCellan said. Thompson ruled out that possibility.
“They’ll be transferred to other sites,” she said.
The company would not disclose how many animals it has.
Covance opened the Chandler site in 2009 after opponents failed to block it because they argued the company would abuse animals, cause air and water pollution and increase the risk of exposure to toxic chemicals and diseases.
Thompson said Covance follows ethical and regulatory guidelines while testing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires animal testing to validate new drugs.
“The use of animals in scientific research is essential to developing safe and effective medicine,” Thompson said.
Despite the controversy over Covance, Chandler considered the company as something that could attract other bioscience firms that pay high-wage jobs. The company initially developed 27 of its 77 acres and anticipated it would expand to employ 2,000.
McClellan said Covance opponents will fight to prevent a similar company that might consider using the facility.
Stephanie Nichols-Young, a Valley attorney who works on animal cases, said she doesn’t expect the same kind of company to buy the facility because animal testing is becoming less common. Other tests conducted in the area are on a much smaller scale and within universities or clinics, she said.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before, so I think it would be unlikely that something like this would come in. But it’s something to be vigilant about,” Nichols-Young said.
• Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
AZnurse posted at 12:55 pm on Wed, May 9, 2012.
Thanks to Garin Groff and the East Valley Tribune for this article on Covance closing in Chandler. So Covance refuses offers from animal protection groups to retire animals to sanctuaries? It’s an unfortunate, but not unexpected response from this company.
Covance has an abysmal track record in many areas and has repeatedly attempted to paint itself as something it is not. Covance is a private lab that does animal testing for its clients, and is the largest breeder of dogs and largest importer of primates for research in the United States. It is not exclusively a medical research firm, as it often represents. On the contrary, its customers include manufacturers of tobacco, toxic, hazardous household products, and pesticides. In 1998, Covance conducted tobacco-industry sponsored studies concluding that even extreme exposures to secondhand smoke were safe for humans. These results contrasted with the Surgeon General’s reports that secondhand smoke substantially increases the risks for lung cancer and heart disease. And at a tobacco industry conference in 2005, Covance gave a presentation titled "How Can Covance Support R&D Needs of the Tobacco Industry?"
Based upon how Covance moved into Chandler (and moved out almost as quickly) using misleading tactics and false promises, it seems that Covance’s ethics have not evolved much since their tobacco promoting days.
Phil Anthropist posted at 2:04 pm on Wed, May 9, 2012.
Covance just goes through those "spokesperson" people like they go through "research tools", don't they? Wendell, Camilla, Barry, Larry, Moe, Curly, where will it end? There is never a shortage of people who don't know the history of Covance that they can train to memorize a few industry buzz phrases. Where's Boyd Dunn? Greater Phoenix Economic Council? Notice Covance's bedbuddy, the Republic, is ignoring this. And Martin Sepulveda can add this to his resume, right along with Cellphonegate, as he runs for... what's he running for again?
Phil Anthropist posted at 2:52 pm on Wed, May 9, 2012.
We are having a caption contest for the photo above. That's Wendell Barr of Covance with the ginormous scissors and Mayor Boyd Dunn to his left. Come on, let's have your entries, folks!
CMC67 posted at 4:08 pm on Wed, May 9, 2012.
In this day and age, with all of our technology there is NO reason to test anything on animals. This is truly animal abuse at it's worst, not sure how any of these "people" sleep at night, but I guess if they do not have a conscious it's not hard to sleep. These types of groups need to be stopped, these murders need to be stopped! Greed is a terrible thing, they should not try to hide behind anything else... Glad they are leaving Chandler, but outraged these jerks, murderers are allowed to continue to torture and murder helpless, caged animals...! Bloodthirsty predators...Serial killers start by harming animals...that is a fact... These "people" are different how?
Juggernaut8000 posted at 4:12 pm on Wed, May 9, 2012.
They should use convicted felons and illegal immigrants for their studies. Not innocent animals. Using human specimens would also yield better and more reliable feedback for the researcher; no cost either!
jimmyjacked posted at 4:34 am on Thu, May 10, 2012.
As horrible as you think Covance is you should thank God you don't have MPI Research in your backyard. Google MPI some time if you want to see a CRO with a truly abysmal public track record for animal abuse. We can only hope we see a similar article in Michigan soon. Unlike Covance, MPI Research doesn't have anywhere else to hide since they're the largest SINGLE site CRO. Once they're gone they're gone for good!
Phil Anthropist posted at 10:59 am on Thu, May 10, 2012.
Here's a caption submission from John Doe:
Mayor Dunn to Wendell Barr: "About that size rumor we keep hearing, is it really true? And is that a souvenir from your bris?"