Created by H. O'Brien
3 Feb 1960
Description:

'PFIZERS

Mr. Stack of Pfizers (British Branch) called this morning to renew old acquaintance. Unlike his previous visit in 1958, this time he was not calling on us for assistance.

Since the export of monkeys resumed, Pfizers in the U.K. have been doing business only with Vitas. Recent shipments of Rhesus monkeys from Delhi to Pfizers have been sizeable. The shipment leaving today consisted of 1,600 monkeys, and orders have been placed for 500 each in March, April, May, and June of this year.

Mr. Stack says he considers the monkey export market to be divided up roughly as follows:-

Vitas 75%

Pattersons 20%

Malhotra 5%

...

Mr. Stack considers Vitas are now really organised. The case against them which has been pending for years (which was a charge of dumping a cargo of dead and dying monkeys at the Puranakela) has finally been dismissed. An indication of their confidence and efficiency is that they are proposing to give a 100% arrival guarantee to purchasers, which means that purchasers will only pay for the actual number of live monkeys received at their premises.

One interesting piece of information given to Mr. Stack by Vitas was that the U.S.S.R., to which country Vitas sell in quantity, expect to buy 10,000 monkeys in 1960.

I asked Mr. Stack about the British Standard for monkey containers, explaining that Dr. Lane-Petter would shortly be visiting this country to talk to the Indian Government on this subject. He said that in his view it did not really matter whether the B.S.S. was adopted or not, for it differed very little from the existing arrangements. He thought that we should go fairly easy about pressing this on the Indian Government. After all, we were not getting the monkeys we required, and in this business the lesson should really be drawn from past events, to let sleeping dogs lie.''