GlaxoSmithKline secured a rare high court injunction last night against an unknown group of animal rights activists, preventing them from publicising names of its shareholders.
The move makes illegal any attempt by campaigners to carry out a threat to publish on a Web site the names and addresses of private investors who refuse to sell their shares in Europe's biggest drugmaker, the company said.
Anyone breaching the injunction could face prosecution for contempt of court, an imprisonable offence. It is the first time such an injunction has been granted to a company in Britain.
Scores of small shareholders, including Irish shareholders, have this week received menacing, unsigned letters demanding that they sell their shares within the next 14 days because of Glaxo's continued use of animal research laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
Glaxo said the police were treating the matter seriously and had started an investigation.
The activists said in their letter they planned to make Glaxo shares 'plummet'.
Glaxo CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier said the attack on private shareholders represented a new kind of intimidation and harassment but many investors who had contacted the company this week were 'resolute' in holding on to their shares.
Many of the world's top 100 medicines were discovered in Britain, the home to industry giants such as Glaxo and AstraZeneca Plc, although the country accounts for less than 4% of the world drugs market.
