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After hearing from PETA and thousands of supporters like you, pharmaceutical giant Sanofi will no longer torment tiny animals in the cruel and worthless forced swim test.
The move follows a campaign that included outreach from PETA’s scientists and more than 440,000 e-mails from our supporters around the world.
Sanofi—makers of Icy Hot, Selsun blue, Gold Bond, Allegra, Nasacort, and Aspercreme—announced the compassionate change with a new public policy confirming that the company “does not use the Porsolt swim test. We have no research projects that involve the use of this test and have no plans for this test to be used in the future, either in-house or at a contract research partner.”
Sanofi previously terrorized more than 1,500 mice and rats in the test—in which sensitive animals are forced to swim for their lives in inescapable beakers of water—between 1993 and 2019, failing to produce a single usable antidepressant.
The forced swim test is a widely used experiment that’s as cruel as it is worthless. In this test, experimenters put mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, or gerbils in inescapable containers filled with water. The panicked animals try to escape by attempting to climb up the sides of the beakers or even dive underwater in search of an exit. They paddle furiously, desperately trying to keep their heads above water.
Sanofi Isn’t the First to End the Near-Drowning Test
After discussions with PETA, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, AbbVie Inc., Roche, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk A/S, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb announced that they would no longer conduct or fund this cruel test!
What Else Can You Do to Help Animals?
We couldn’t have done it without your help. Please use your considerable sway to protect more animals by urging the National Institutes of Health to stop funding useless and deadly sepsis experiments on animals.
