Stockholders to Be Presented With Effective, Humane Alternatives

Wilmington, Del. — Twelve Bristol-Myers Squibb stockholders have introduced a resolution, on behalf of PETA, to be voted on at the New York-based company’s annual meeting in Wilmington on Tuesday. The resolution calls on the company to replace five painful animal tests with effective, state-of-the-art, non-animal test methods that are currently available and in use in the European Union, Canada, and other countries:

Working with a number of its members, PETA has filed similar resolutions with 16 of the largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. Five companies—Dow Chemical, GE, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, and Schering-Plough—filed appeals with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), arguing that the resolutions should be declared ineligible for consideration by their stockholders, but the SEC rejected the arguments, ruling that the companies must include the PETA-sponsored animal-testing resolutions in their proxy materials. The filings have led to productive discussions between PETA’s science advisors and several of the companies. PETA agreed to withdraw its resolutions from Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, Schering-Plough, and Dow following negotiations.