I'm furious!

Protested drug firm finds new site
Edythe Jensen
The Arizona Republic
Covance Inc., a global drug development company reviled by animal rights groups, is coming to Chandler. The company has moved its planned medical research facility to a new site that doesn't need a zoning change or public vote.The company announced Tuesday it is moving its site from the Price Corridor to a new location in the Chandler Airpark, a move that also could speed up development around the city's airport.The new site, near Gilbert and Ryan roads, is already approved for an industrial facility, and Covance will be allowed to build without City Council vote or threat of referendum, Mayor Boyd Dunn said. That clears the way for construction.
In a high-security press conference at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort, Dunn, four City Council members, several state lawmakers and a room full of community and business leaders, said they support the plan and welcome the biotech giant to the city. The change drew outrage from Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal rights group that had planned to launch a referendum against Covance had their previous site received zoning approval."We're still going to fight this project and we think this (the move) is a sign that Covance has recognized there is strong public opposition in Chandler," said PCRM spokesman Patrick Sullivan. Today's announcement comes a week after PCRM mailed 23,000 explicit DVDs of undercover footage inside Covance's animal laboratories to Chandler voters. The DVD starts with a plea from Scottsdale surgeon Deborah Wilson, who asks viewers to contact city officials and ask them not to allow Covance to build in the city. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection gathered the images after members infiltrated laboratories in Virginia and Germany.Covance officials said earlier they were preparing for an unprecedented ideological battle with animal rights activists in seeking zoning approval for their former site at Price and Germann roads. In August, James Lovett, corporate senior vice president and general counsel, said Covance "will do whatever we need to do to get the facts out." Lovett was in the audience at today's conference.