LSRI drops to Pink Sheets amid animal rights action
Wed Feb 8, 2006 7:39 PM ET
By Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Embattled animal testing lab Life Sciences Research Inc.(LSRI.PK: Quote, Profile, Research), target of an intensive protest campaign by animal rights activists, was forced to start trading shares on the Pink Sheets this week, five months after it expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
"Delisting them to the Pink Sheets is not enough, so we are now moving into next stage of the campaign, which is getting them delisted from the Pink Sheets," Camille Hankins, co-founder of New York-based Win Animal Rights (WAR), said on Wednesday.
"The prize is to close down LSRI and stop that killing."
Life Sciences officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The company, which does animal research for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, was set to join the Big Board in September, when the NYSE suddenly and without explanation pulled the plug on the listing.
A month later, the company was still hoping to join the NYSE as promised.
But the campaign of intimidation and threats by animal rights activists led to the resignation of the company's primary market maker, Legacy Trading, and Life Sciences Research suffered the indignity of being dropped to trading on the Pink Sheets.
A Pink Sheets official, informed of WAR's aim to get the company delisted from the Pink Sheets, said there was nothing he could do about it.
"We are not a regulator," said the official, who asked that his name not be used.
He said the only way a company can be removed from the Pink Sheets was if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspends trading or if brokers were to stop trading the company's shares.
Hankins said her group would continue its picketing protests against the company on almost a daily basis. The group, which accuses LSRI of profiting by the suffering and killing of animals, also plans to make executives of biotech companies attending a major conference in New York next week walk a gauntlet of protesters.
WAR activists have also threatened to step up their campaign by staging protests at the offices and homes of executives of Life Sciences' major investors and customers, including drug makers Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Novartis AG (NOVN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research).
Previous protests have taken place at the homes of LSRI's investors and market makers.
Another animal rights group, the Animal Liberation Front, claimed responsibility for spray-painting slogans across the walls of two New York-area yacht clubs frequented by employees of a Wall Street firm that was going to trade shares of Life Sciences. The firm then changed its mind.
Before the planned NYSE listing, contact information for hundreds of NYSE employees appeared on the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Web site (www.shac.net).
Life Sciences is the parent of British-based Huntingdon Life Sciences, which has long been a target of U.K. animal rights activists.
LSRI shares closed down 10 cents at $11.30 on Wednesday. Shares were trading for about $18 on the Nasdaq Bulletin Board in September.
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