DRUGS company GlaxoSmithKline said last night it had no intention of quitting Britain, despite threats from animal rights activists.
Europe's biggest drugmaker told shareholders at its annual meeting yesterday that it would maintain its British headquarters and factories.
Chief executive John-Pierre Garnier said: "We have strong roots in this country and we have very important centres in this country and this presence will remain."
As a global business, Britain is a relatively minor market for Glaxo, which makes most of its money in the US.
Glaxo used the meeting in London yesterday to reassure individual investors who received unsigned letters from activists last week, threatening to publish their names on the Internet if they did not sell their shares. Investors in the North-East have been targeted.
The company, which has a factory in Barnard Castle, County Durham, employing 1,150 people, has since won a court injunction to prevent the extremists carrying out their threats.
Police believe Glaxo was targeted because of its links to medical research group Huntingdon Life Sciences for its use of animals in tests.
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