Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation: Airing anti-prevagen cable TV ad

Contact: Barbara Stagno,President CAARE 914-674-0577 bstagno@optonline.net

Madison – The Wisconsin-maker of the popular memory supplement Prevagen – charged with making false marketing claims in a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General in January, and urged by consumer groups to stop advertising – is now the target of TV ads on CNN, FoxNews and other cable channels linking the company to cruel and unnecessary testing on animals, including beagles. https://www.truthinadvertising.org/prevagen-supplement/

New York-based Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation (CAARE) said the campaign has been launched in Madison, WI, the home of Quincy Bioscience, which CAARE charges has performed, commissioned or supported animal testing for Prevagen, with about $165 million in sales through 2015 in 20,000 major retail locations like Walgreen’s and CVS.  

The dramatic 30-second spot (https://youtu.be/ykDf_Cb-bHk) is appearing on major cable news and entertainment networks like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Lifetime and HGTV in the Madison region.

CAARE is charging that Prevagen, the nation’s No. 1-selling memory supplement, is linked to cruel and unnecessary tests on animals – including aging beagles and rats. CAARE has launched a boycott and petition to end the practice. Since the Nov. 4 petition launch, nearly 200,000 people have signed it, pledging to boycott Prevagen, and calling for Quincy Biosciences to adopt a firm, no-animal testing policy.  

CAARE said Quincy Bioscience carried out egregious tests on rats that infused apoaequorin – the active ingredient in Prevagen – directly into their brains after inserting steel tubing through their skulls.  Quincy Bioscience also provided support for rat tests to study the effect of fear on learning. Rats were placed into chambers and received painful electric shocks to their feet. Then they were killed to dissect their brains. These studies had nothing to do with apoaequorin.

Quincy Bioscience also conducted experiments on beagles to study Neutricks, a supplement to support brain function in aging dogs that also contains apoaequorin, and is made by its affiliate Quincy Animal Health.
  
The beagle studies were carried out by CanCog Technologies Inc., a Canadian contract lab using elderly dogs, ages 9 through 17. The studies were not lethal or invasive, but CAARE believes that dogs belong in loving homes, not contract labs. Given their advanced age, concerns exist about the quality of their lives, likely spent in research. CAARE said CanCog obtains the beagles from yet another contract lab, VivoCore Colony. The string of contract labs paints a disturbing picture of animals’ living their lives in cold, institutional settings. 

Barbara Stagno, CAARE’s president, said, “Public opinion surveys show 70 percent of the public is opposed to unnecessary animal testing. Shocking rats to induce fear and life in captivity for companion animals like dogs and cats is distasteful to an increasingly humane society. People want to see a 17 year old dog curled up at the foot of the bed, not living in a contract lab. Quincy Bioscience needs to give up animal experiments entirely and make a commitment to embrace a no animal testing policy. The boycott is on until we see that day.”
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Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals. CAARE’s mission is to end animal suffering in laboratories by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals. Citizens for Alternatives to Animals Research & Experimentation PO Box 102 • Ardsley, NY 10502 • www.caareusa.org