Covance gets new detractor in advocacy group

A Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group has jumped into the debate over drugtesting giant Covance’s plans to locate in Chandler, sending out tens of thousands of mailers blasting the company.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a national nonprofit group that promotes vegan diets and animal rights, sent the mailer to more than 71,000 of Chandler’s nearly 90,000 homes, urging residents to lobby the City Council to keep Covance out of the city.

Covance, the world’s largest contract laboratory company, announced last summer it plans to build a 400,000-square-foot facility along Price Road between Germann and Queen Creek roads within the next two years. The facility would test drug and chemical components on various animals.

The May 22 mailer claims the company abuses its test animals and could possibly bring deadly diseases, such as Ebola, to Chandler.

The committee has also distributed yard signs stating “Say no Covance” that have sprouted on city street corners in recent weeks.

The advertisement spurred a flurry of e-mails — both opposing and supporting the project — to City Council members.

“This is a business better left for ghettos, not for our beautiful community,” wrote Chandler resident Mark Walker in an e-mail to Mayor Boyd Dunn. “I believe that any politician who would bring Covance into Chandler is worthy of a recall.”

But to other residents, Covance’s promise of up to 400 jobs is reason enough to welcome the company.

“I am in favor of jobs and economic development and do not support the tactics of slanderous mass mailers,” wrote resident Cory Jenkins in another e-mail to Dunn.

Covance representatives dismissed the mailer’s claims Tuesday, calling the committee simply “a front group for PETA,” referring to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“I find it interesting that a group that has the word ‘responsible’ as part of its name puts out a mailer that’s more fiction than fact,” said Camilla Strongin, a Covance spokeswoman.

The mailer is seen as a response to one sent to approximately 60,000 homes in early April promoting the company’s plans in Chandler and has been expected for several weeks, said Jan McClellan, who heads a local opposition group called Citizens Against Covance.

“Covance has a very poor history of treatment of their animals,” said Dr. Aysha Akhtar, a medical doctor and spokeswoman for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Akhtar pointed to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation that resulted in 16 citations and a $8,720 fine against the company. The investigation began after PETA released a video last year shot undercover at Covance’s Vienna, Va., testing facility. The organization made more than 700 allegations about the company’s treatment of test animals.

Wendel Barr, a senior vice president for Covance, said at the time that the company didn’t agree with all of the citations but did pay the fine. He said the citations were minor and that the company has already addressed the issues. Three of the 16 citations stemmed specifically from animal handling. Barr said those citations all involved one technician who no longer works for Covance.