SAN FRANCISCO, 31 July 2006 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday promised "robust" action against extremists targeting companies using animals for medical research.
Blair vowed the crackdown on anti-vivisectionists in a progress report on government action to deal with the problem, launched on a trip to California to promote British industry, particularly the biotechnology sector.
"Hundreds of millions of people in the UK and around the world today are alive and healthy because of the pioneering work of our scientists and researchers," Blair said in the three-page document.
"Many millions more will be spared an early death or a life of pain because of the research now under way. They deserve our support. And they should get it."
He added: "The UK government will continue to take robust action against those extremists who put vital research at risk.
"By working closely with industry, scientists and enforcement agencies, we have put in place a strategy for the continued success of biotech in the UK."
The British government tightened up legislation in response to a number of high-profile animal rights campaigns.
They included threats, intimidation, harassment, criminal damage and violence against staff at Huntingdon Life Sciences, in Cambridge, eastern England, which tests new medicines and vaccines on animals.
Companies and individuals associated with the facility, including shareholders of British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, have also been targeted.
Contractors at a new biomedical research centre in Oxford, southern England, have also faced threats, forcing work to stop, while the owners of a farm that bred guinea pigs for medical testing suffered a six-year terror campaign.
It culminated when the body of one of the owners' relatives was stolen from a graveyard. Four extremists were jailed in May this year.
The report said eight leading animal rights extremists are currently in jail with two more subject to supervision conditions; specialist police teams have been created and extra resources given to law enforcers.
Blair made his stance clear in May this year by backing a draft law to allow companies involved in animal testing to keep shareholders and directors' personal details private.
He also signed "The People's Petition", which was set up to "give a voice to the silent majority of people in Britain who want to show their support for medical research using animals".
Trade body the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said this week there had been a "sea change" in the level of attacks and harassment, which had threatened to deter overseas investment.
In the first half of this year there were only 15 incidents, under half the number for the same period last year and just 14 percent of the total for the first six months of 2004, the ABPI said.
Government figures show about a quarter of Britain's 3.2-billion-pound (A$7.7 billion) per year research and development budget comes from the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical exports stood at 12.2 billion pounds (A$29.6 billion) in 2005.
