Editing Huntingdon Life Sciences

{{Short description|Contract research organisation}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Huntingdon Life Sciences
| logo = File:Huntingdon-logo-for-wiki.jpg
| fate = Merged into Envigo (now [[Inotiv]])
| successor = [[Inotiv]]
| foundation = {{start date and age|1951}} in [[Cambridgeshire, England]]
| location = [[East Millstone, New Jersey]]
| area_served = Global
| key_people = [[Brian Cass]], Former Managing Director
| industry = [[Pharmaceutical industry]]
| services = [[Contract research organization]]
| revenue = $242 million
| operating_income = $35 million
| net_income = $10 million
| assets = $171 million
| equity = -$15 million
| num_employees = >1,600
| footnotes = <ref name=10K>{{cite news| url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1158833/000115883309000010/form10k2008.htm | publisher=[[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] | title=LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH INC. Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2008 | date=March 16, 2009}}</ref>
}}
'''Huntingdon Life Sciences''' ('''HLS''') was a [[contract research organisation]] (CRO) organized in Maryland and headquartered in [[East Millstone, New Jersey]]. It was founded in 1951 in [[Cambridgeshire, England]]. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 employees, it was the largest non-clinical CRO in Europe and the third-largest non-clinical CRO in the world.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.outsourcing-pharma.com/Article/2014/05/07/Huntingdon-buys-Harlan-to-form-3rd-largest-preclinical-CRO |title=Huntingdon buys Harlan to form 3rd largest preclinical CRO | first=Dan | last=Stanton | work=Outsourcing Pharma | date=6 May 2014}}</ref> In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, [[Harlan (company)|Harlan Laboratories]], GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo (now [[Inotiv]]).

HLS provided [[contract research organization]] services in pre-clinical and non-clinical biological safety evaluation research. As with other major CROs operating in this business area, its major business is serving the pharmaceutical industry. However, more than a third of its business came from non-pharmaceutical sources, such as the [[crop protection]] industry which accounts for around 60% of its non-pharmaceutical business.

HLS had two facilities in the UK ([[Huntingdon]], Cambridgeshire and [[Eye, Suffolk]]), one in the USA ([[East Millstone, New Jersey]]) and an office in Japan (Tokyo).

The company was one of the largest participants in the [[international primate trade]] and has been criticized for its [[animal testing]] practices, most specifically [[animal testing on non-human primates]] as well as on [[beagle]]s. The [[Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty]] campaign was formed with the goal of shutting down the company due to [[animal rights]] violations.

==History==
Huntingdon Life Sciences was founded in the UK in 1951 as Nutrition Research Co. Ltd., a commercial organisation that initially focused on [[nutrition]], [[veterinary]], and [[biochemical]] research. The original facilities were split over two locations; the main offices were within Cromwell House in the town of [[Huntingdon]]; and the main laboratories were at the Hartford Field Station, just over a mile away. It then became involved with [[pharmaceuticals]], [[food additives]], and industrial and consumer chemicals. In 1959 it changed its name to Nutritional Research Unit Ltd. The company benefited in the early 1960s from increased government regulatory testing requirements, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1964, it was acquired by [[Becton Dickinson]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/huntingdon-life-sciences-group-plc  | title=Huntingdon Life Sciences Group plc | work=[[Encyclopedia.com]]}}</ref>

In April 1983, [[Becton Dickinson]] created Huntingdon Research Centre PLC. It then offered four million [[American depositary receipt]]s (ADRs) for sale at $15 each, representing the company's entire interest in Huntingdon. In 1985, as it began to expand its operations, the company changed its name to Huntingdon International Holdings plc. That year, it established Huntingdon Analytical Services Inc. to conduct business in the United States.

To augment its CRO business, Huntingdon acquired Minnesota's Twin City Testing Laboratory and affiliated companies in 1985, followed by the acquisition of Nebraska Testing Corporation in 1986; Travis Laboratories and Kansas City Test Laboratory Inc. in 1989; and Southwestern Laboratories, Inc. in 1990. Huntingdon also diversified its operations, primarily in the United States, becoming involved in engineering and environmental services.

In 1987, HLS acquired Northern Engineering and Testing. In 1988, it acquired Empire Soils Investigations, Chen Associates, and Asteco Inc. In 1988, HLS was floated on the [[London Stock Exchange]] and in 1989 obtained a listing on the [[New York Stock Exchange]]. In 1990, Huntingdon acquired the St. Louis branch of Envirodyne Engineers and Whiteley Holdings. In 1991, it acquired Austin Research Engineers, followed by Travers Morgan.

By the early 1990s, Huntingdon was organised into three business groups: the Life Sciences Group, the Engineering/Environmental Group, and the Travers Morgan Group, which offered engineering and environmental consulting services outside of the United States. However, only the Life Sciences Group showed long-term promise. Travers Morgan was allowed to lapse into insolvency, control passed into other hands, and Huntingdon wrote off the investment. In 1995, the engineering and environmental businesses were sold to Maxim Engineers of Dallas, Texas.

To bolster its CRO business and reinforce its U.S. presence, in 1995, Huntingdon acquired the toxicology business of Applied Biosciences International for $32.5 million in cash, plus the Leicester Clinical Research Centre. The deal included a U.S. laboratory located near [[Princeton, New Jersey]], as well as two British facilities. In 1997, Huntingdon International Holdings changed its name to Huntingdon Life Sciences Group. The U.K. subsidiary, Huntingdon Research Centre, changed its name to Huntingdon Life Sciences, while the U.S. business operated as Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc.

In 2002, HLS moved its financial centre to the [[United States]] and incorporated in [[Maryland]] as Life Sciences Research.

In 2009, HLS was acquired.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.biospace.com/life-sciences-research-inc-announces-consummation-of-going-private-transaction | title=Life Sciences Research, Inc. Announces Consummation of Going Private Transaction | publisher=[[Business Wire]] | date=November 25, 2009}}</ref>

In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, [[Harlan (company)|Harlan Laboratories]], GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo (now [[Inotiv]]).

==Staff numbers==
The latest available public figures from 2008 show that HLS employs more than 1,600 staff across all of its facilities. They break down as:<ref>HLS Annual Report 2008</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!             !! 2008     !! 2007    
|-
| '''UK'''    || align="right" | 1,303   || align="right" | 1,313    
|-
| '''US'''    || align="right" | 333     || align="right" | 309    
|-
| '''Japan''' || align="right" | 12      || align="right" | 12
|-
| '''Total''' || align="right" | 1,648   || align="right" | 1,634
|}

==Trade bodies and associations==
* [[Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry]] (ABPI) <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abpi.org.uk/about-us/membership/Pages/research-affiliate-list.aspx |title=Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry |publisher=Abpi.org.uk |access-date=3 October 2012 |archive-date=7 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407101257/http://www.abpi.org.uk/about-us/membership/Pages/research-affiliate-list.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Bioindustry Association (BIA) <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bioindustry.org/membership/member-directory/?alpha=H |title=Bioindustry Association |publisher=Bioindustry.org |access-date=3 October 2012 |archive-date=18 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018050013/http://www.bioindustry.org/membership/member-directory/?alpha=H |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care]] (AAALAC) <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaalac.org/accreditedorgs/aaalacprgms.cfm |title=Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care |publisher=Aaalac.org |access-date=3 October 2012}}</ref>
* Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
* [[Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments]] (FRAME) <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.frame.org.uk/page.php?pg_id=44 |title=Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments |publisher=Frame.org.uk |access-date=3 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415104620/http://www.frame.org.uk/page.php?pg_id=44 |archive-date=15 April 2012 }}</ref>
* Institute of Animal Technology (IAT)
* [[Understanding Animal Research]] (UAR) <ref>[http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/about_us/member_organisations Understanding Animal Research] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909055105/http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/about_us/member_organisations |date=9 September 2011 }}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
*Agrow Awards Best Supporting Role 2007{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}
*Queens Award for Export Achievement 1982.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rIK0qp_hyccC&q=huntingdon+life+sciences+Queens+Awards+for+Export&pg=PA57 |title=Queens Award for Export Achievement |date=17 May 1984 |access-date=3 October 2012}}</ref>

==Use of animals==
HLS uses animals in the biomedical research it conducts for its customers. The most recent numbers released state that in the UK around 60,000 animals are used annually.<ref>[http://www.huntingdon.com/ethics/animals-used-in-research.html Huntingdon Life Sciences website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227223520/http://www.huntingdon.com/ethics/animals-used-in-research.html |date=27 December 2011 }}</ref> This number is broken down by species:

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!style="width: 100px;"| Animal
!style="width: 100px;"| Usage
|-
| [[Mouse]]
| 19.25%
|-
| [[Fish]]
| 3.45%
|-
| [[Rat]]
| 71.05%
|-
| [[Bird]]
| 0.92%
|-
| Other [[mammals]]
| 5.31%
|}

==Controversies==
Huntingdon is criticised by [[animal rights]] and [[animal welfare]] groups for using animals in research, for instances of [[animal abuse]] and for the wide range of substances it tests on animals, particularly non-medical products. It is claimed by SHAC that 500 animals died every day at HLS (182,500 a year),<ref name="SHAC website 2">{{cite web|url=http://www.shac.net/news/2011/august/26-27.html |title=>> Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty |publisher=SHAC |access-date=3 October 2012}}</ref> a figure at odds with HLS' published numbers.

Huntingdon's labs were infiltrated by [[undercover]] animal rights [[activists]] in 1997 in the UK and in 1998 in the US.

In 1997, film secretly recorded inside HLS in the UK by [[BUAV]] and subsequently broadcast on [[Channel 4]] television as "It's a Dog's Life", showed serious breaches of animal-protection laws, including a [[beagle]] puppy being held up by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly punched in the face, and animals being taunted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smallworldtv.co.uk/public/main.cfm?m1=c_75&m2=c_2&m3=c_54&m4=e_0 |title=Small World TV |publisher=Small World TV |access-date=3 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308224555/http://www.smallworldtv.co.uk/public/main.cfm?m1=c_75&m2=c_2&m3=c_54&m4=e_0 |archive-date=8 March 2012 }}</ref>

The laboratory technicians responsible were suspended from HLS the day after the broadcast. All three were later dismissed.<ref name="CassTelegraph">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090120020357/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4276376/The-men-who-stood-up-to-animal-rights-militants.html The men who stood up to animal rights' militants], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 17 January 2009</ref> Two of the men seen hitting and shaking dogs were found guilty under the [[Protection of Animals Act 1911]] of "cruelly terrifying dogs." It was the first time laboratory technicians had been prosecuted for animal cruelty in the UK. HLS admitted that the technicians' behaviour was deplorable and a new management team was introduced the following year which, according to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', "introduced greater openness and new training methods."<ref name="CassTelegraph"/>

In 1998, an undercover investigator for [[People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]] (PETA) used a camera hidden in her glasses to make 50 hours of videotape of the HLS laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. She also made four 90-minute audiotapes, photocopied 8,000 company documents, and copied the company's client list. According to PETA some of the film she shot showed a monkey being dissected while still alive and conscious. The president of HLS in New Jersey, Alan Staple, said the monkey was alive but sedated during the dissection.<ref name="Kolata">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/24/science/tough-tactics-in-one-battle-over-animals-in-the-lab.html|title=Tough Tactics In One Battle Over Animals In the Lab|last=Kolata|first=Gina|date=24 March 1998|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 December 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

A 2001 article from [[Resurgence_%26_Ecologist|The Resurgence Trust]] stated that HLS obtained a "gagging order" in the US that prevents PETA from publicising or talking about any of the information that they discovered. The order also prevented PETA from communicating with the American Department of Agriculture, which had been going to investigate the evidence.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=The Resurgence Trust |author-link1=Resurgence %26 Ecologist |author2=Zoe Broughton |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A71634854/AONE?u=mlin_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=3626a226 |title=Seeing Is Believing |journal=[[The Ecologist]] |date=March 2001 |volume=31 |issue=2 |via=Gale Academic Onefile |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref>

===Protests and intimidation===
The [[Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty]] (SHAC) campaign is based in the UK and US, and has aimed to close the company down since 1999. According to its website, the campaign's methods are restricted to non-violent [[direct action]], as well as [[lobbying]] and demonstrations. It targets not only HLS itself, but any company, institution, or person allegedly doing business with the laboratory, whether as clients, suppliers, or even disposal and cleaning services, and the employees of those companies.

Despite its stated non-violent position, SHAC members have been convicted of crimes of violence against HLS employees. On 25 October 2010 five SHAC members received prison sentences for threatening HLS staff. SHAC has also been accused of encouraging [[arson]] and violent assault. An HLS director was assaulted in front of his child.<ref name=Piercy125>Piercy, Nigel. ''Market-Led Strategic Change: A Guide to Transforming the Process of Going to Market''. Butterworth-Heinemann 2002, p. 125.</ref> HLS managing director [[Brian Cass]] was sent a mousetrap primed with razor blades,<ref name=Piercy125/> and in February 2001 was attacked by three men armed with pickaxe handles and CS gas.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1494924.stm Jail for lab boss attacker], BBC News, 16 August 2001</ref> Another businessman with links to HLS was attacked and knocked unconscious adjacent to a barn his assailants had set alight.<ref name="CassTelegraph"/>

Both SHAC and [[Animal Liberation Front]] activists have been alleged to have been engaged in [[harassment]] and [[intimidation]], including issuing hoax bomb threats and death threats.<ref>[http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=288432003 Counting the cost of fear], Scotland on Sunday, 9 March 2003.</ref> In 2003, [[Daniel Andreas San Diego]] was accused by the American FBI of "ecoterrorism" in support of SHAC in the San Francisco Area; however, there is some question whether his "terrorist plot" was an entrapment operation by the American FBI.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shipler |first1=David |title=Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html |work=New York Times |date=April 28, 2012}}</ref> In 2008 seven of SHAC's senior members were described by prosecutors as "some of the key figures in the Animal Liberation Front" and found guilty of conspiracy to blackmail HLS.<ref name="TimesYeoman">Fran Yeoman [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629113806/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5391798.ece "Extremists face long jail sentences after blackmail conviction"], ''The Times'', 24 December 2008</ref>

===Effect of campaign===
The campaign against HLS led to its share price crashing, the [[Royal Bank of Scotland]] closing its bank account, and the British government arranging for the [[Bank of England]] to give them an account.<ref name=Potter/> In 2000, HLS was dropped from the [[New York Stock Exchange]] because of its [[market capitalization]] had fallen below NYSE limits.<ref name=Potter>{{cite web |last=Potter |first=Will |author-link=Will Potter |title=Green is the New Red |website=[[CounterPunch]] |date=4 May 2006 |url=http://www.counterpunch.org/potter05042006.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408094959/http://counterpunch.org/potter05042006.html |archive-date=8 April 2007}}.</ref>

===Government response===
{{Expand section|reason= The government of the day responded to the 1997 investigative work, and additional responses were made before 2006|date=August 2012}}
From 2006, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' reports, the British Government took the decision to tackle "the problem of animal rights extremism."<ref name="CassTelegraph"/> On 1 May 2007, a police campaign called ''Operation Achilles'' was enacted against SHAC, a series of raids involving 700 police officers in England, Amsterdam, and Belgium.<ref name=spiegel>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,517875-2,00.html "Britain's other war on terror"], Spiegel online, 19 November 2007</ref> In total, 32 people linked to the group were arrested,<ref>[http://www.netcu.org.uk/media/article.jsp?id=249 "Animal rights extremism – police arrest 32 people"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927074535/http://www.netcu.org.uk/media/article.jsp?id=249 |date=27 September 2007 }}, National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit press release, 1 May 2007.</ref> and seven leading members of SHAC, including [[Greg Avery]], were found guilty of blackmail.<ref>[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92cf1796-93d2-11dd-b277-0000779fd18c.html "Activists in live testing trial deny blackmail"], ''[[Financial Times]]'' 6 October 2008.</ref> Police estimated in 2007 that, as a consequence of the operation, "up to three quarters of the most violent activists" were jailed. ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' writes that the number of attacks on HLS and their business declined drastically but "the movement is by no means dead."<ref name=spiegel/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{atestingend}}
{{Animal rights|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Animal testing]]
[[Category:Animal rights]]
[[Category:Companies based in Cambridgeshire]]
[[Category:Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange]]
[[Category:Huntingdon]]
[[Category:Life sciences industry]]
[[Category:Toxicology in the United Kingdom]]