In Brief: Gillette
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Gillette: Funding two $50,000 grants for the research and development of non-animal testing methods, the company said. The recipients of the grants are Dennis DeLuca, PhD, and Craig Elmets, MD, of the Department of Dermatology at the Case Western School of Medicine and James Zieske, PhD, of the Schepens Eye Research Institute. DeLuca and Elmets will investigate dermatitis "with the goal of producing an in vitro alternative to animals for skin irritancy testing," while Zieske will research methods of developing an in vitro eye irritancy model by culturing human cornea cells. Gillette has recently come under fire by animal rights groups; the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in February claiming that Gillette engages in "false, misleading, and deceptive" advertising by stating among other things, that "it must use animal tests in order to comply with governmental requirements." ("The Rose Sheet" March 4, p. 8)