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Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists: "You Are Criminals"

By Jim Edwards | Oct 5, 2009

The news that Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella has sent 140 animal rights activists letters warning them to back off — they burned down his vacation home and desecrated his family grave in July — will have many in the pharmaceutical business cheering in their cubicles: Finally, someone is taking a stand and defending the industry, instead of cowering behind press releases and security guards. The letter says, per the FT:

“We strongly condemn the use of violence and terrorist tactics . . .  as a substitute for meaningful, productive dialogue. As the author of the e-mail received, you should be aware that willingly or not you are associating yourself with criminal activity, such as extortion and blackmail.”

He exhibited similar bravado to Dow Jones Newswires.

But Vasella’s strategy is doomed to failure if he cannot demonstrate what the company has previously claimed: That Novartis has indeed severed its ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences, the contract company that does often grisly drug tests on animals.

This is the key to the entire conflict. Even though Novartis has previously said it no longer deals with HLS, the rights activists do not believe the company. And those activists are far more numerous, and far more determined, than Vasella is. As long as they believe Novartis tests at HLS, Vasella will be a target no matter how angry he becomes.

But being able to demonstrate that the activists are wrong on the facts could be a game-changer. Even extremists need a sympathetic political environment. The fact is that testing at HLS is fairly unpleasant. If Vasella can show Novartis is no longer involved, then the activists don’t just look extreme — they look insane.

And yet that is the one piece missing from Vasella’s PR gambit.

Tags: Novartis AG, Activist, CEO, E-mail, Public Relations, Strategy, Online Communications, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Management, Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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  • Animal Rights Activists Take Anti-Novartis Protest Too Far

    Seeking Alpha - 103 days 4 hours 13 minutes ago

    Derek Lowe submits: Novartis NVS has had trouble for years with animal rights activists, and now things are getting nastier than ever: Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella says the people who burned down his holiday home and defiled his family's graves are not criminals but "terrorists" beyond

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    Fierce Pharma - 48 days 2 hours 50 minutes ago

    Unlike other victims of animal rights extremists, Daniel Vasella isn't lying low, the Financial Times reports. Instead, he's personally warned 140 people who sent him critical emails "willingly or not you are associating yourself with criminal activity." And he defends his and his company's pharmaceutical testing, saying that those who try to...

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    BNET Pharma - 103 days 4 hours 36 minutes ago

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    BNET Pharma - 110 days 2 hours 51 minutes ago

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  •  
    1

    Daievans

    10/05/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    It's pretty sad when you have to justify your stance in the face of criminals, because some ad-man thinks you should .... whatever happened to us if we think it's justifiable to burn down people's homes and desecrate the graves of their family members. These people are criminals and violent to boot, so why do you think they will respond to reason?

  •  
    2

    sterenwick

    10/06/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    When you say "The fact is that testing at HLS is fairly unpleasant." do you mean that there is something specifically wrong with HLS's testing facilities or that testing on animals in general is fairly unpleasant?

  •  
    3

    BNET's Jim Edwards

    10/06/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    @sterenwick: I'm saying that in general animal testing is unpleasant.

  •  
    4

    Manabozho

    10/06/09 | Report as spam

    Logic 101 conundrum: prove a negative

    If Novartis set out to pacify these activists, it would sign up for an unsolvable PR problem, because it's unsolvable logically. These attackers will simply insist ad infinitum that Novartis is somehow concealing its work with Huntingdon, no matter what is offered. In that sense, the activists' position flunks the first test of scientific assertion: falsifiability. In other words, no practical amount of observation could prove that it's not true. Novartis is immense; all the activists have to do is repeatedly invent claims: "You're managing it secretly from your warehouse operation in Johannesburg," or some other conjecture.

    Is anyone really surprised that a responsible corporation won't throw open all its internal records, without limit, so that an unbounded, unregulated group with no expertise can rummage through them to its heart's content? Novartis would get a huge shareholder suit for such behavior, and would deserve one.

    You don't have to be a fan of David Letterman, or how he conducts his life, to believe that extortion is illegal. How's this different? A big company responds to public outcry, is not universally believed, and its leadership becomes a target of unlawful threats. The threats are unlawful on their merits.

  •  
    5

    john649-23148664764713279397509692018192

    10/06/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    well first off, sending emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists is kinda dumb. Those that have nothing to do with this are laughing right now and those that are involved will be more determined than ever.
    I'm not involved with any org. but I do know that what goes around comes around and if he was a partner in abusing, torturing and desecrating the lives of animals than what is coming back to him is merely payback for the misery he has inflicted on others. If he is trying to get sympathy it will be short lived because the rights of animals to live pain free, torture free lives is expanding, gaining momentum, and establishing itself in the legal realm. Won't be long until animal testing will be a nightmare of the past.

  •  
    6

    animallibpress

    10/07/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    I guess the letter Vasella mailed me got lost in the mail. And yes, I am laughing at his ridiculous strategy, but not about the 500 animals tortured to death at HLS every day. Seven separate undercover investigations have exposed animal abuse at HLS that does not even conform to the governments minimal standards.

    Until Novartis confirms in writing they are no longer paying HLS to kill non-human animals, Vasella and every other apologist complicit in animal abuse will need to keep looking over their shoulders. The animals cannot fight for themselves, but there are thousands of activists willing to fight for them.

  •  
    7

    sterenwick

    10/13/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Novartis CEO Sends Emails to 140 Animal Rights Activists:

    @animallibpress: Does that mean you support the use of animals in medical research but specifically don't approve of HLS? Which research facilities do you approve of?

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