For immediate release:
September 27, 2021
Contact:
Amanda Hayes 202-483-7382
Philadelphia – On Wednesday, a group of PETA supporters will raise an uproar during the Fierce Pharma Marketing Awards gala at the Pennsylvania Convention Center over Eli Lilly’s refusal to ban forced swimming tests, despite most other major pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca, who will also be on display at the event, did just that. In this test, mice and other small animals are often injected with the test substance, placed in beakers of water, and forced to swim frantically to avoid drowning, presumably to demonstrate the effects of antidepressants. Since 1993, Eli Lilly has tortured 3,400 mice and rats in this test, although it does not accurately predict whether the drug will act as an antidepressant in humans. Even Eli Lilly’s bestseller, Prozac, did not perform consistently in benchmarks.
When: Wednesday, September 29, 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., Philadelphia
“Eli Lilly’s refusal to ban this near-drowning test is a commitment to bad science,” says PETA Senior Vice President Cathy Guillermo. “CEOs should be ashamed to stand in front of their peers and defend this scientifically discredited brutality.”
PETA, whose motto is in part that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human excellence.
For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…