February 14, 2017

CAARE’s research has revealed that Prevagen®, the number one selling supplement to support memory, is being tested on animals. These tests are completely unjustified and need to stop.

Please join CAARE in contacting Quincy Bioscience, the company that manufactures Prevagen®, to politely ask that they end all animal tests and adopt a firm no animal testing policy.

Apoaequorin – the active ingredient in Prevagen® – is a calcium-binding protein touted to have brain boosting abilities. Apoaequorin (pronounced: ā-poe-ē-kwôr-ĭn) is naturally found in jelly fish, but the company synthesizes apoaequorin and points out that jelly fish are unharmed in the making of Prevagen®.

We wish they could say the same for other animals. Quincy Bioscience uses rats in cruel experiments to study apoaequorin’s effect on brain cells. One study used 142 rats subjected to invasive brain experiments. Under anesthesia, rats were mounted on a fixation device and their skulls opened to implant stainless steel tubes to infuse apoaequorin directly into their brains.

Quincy Bioscience also provided support for experiments on rats to study the effect of fear on learning. 

Rats were placed into chambers and received painful electric shocks to their feet. Then they were killed to dissect their brains. These studies had nothing to do with apoaequorin but they were supported by Quincy Bioscience.

Quincy Bioscience has also conducted experiments on beagles to study supplements to support brain function in aging dogs. The product, Neutricks, which also contains apoaequorin, is manufactured by its affiliate company Quincy Animal Health.

Fortunately the dog studies were not invasive and none were killed. But the dogs were obtained through a contract lab and likely spent much of their lives in a lab setting.

The contract company, CanCog Technologies Inc. explains that animals receive toys and group kennel housing, however, that’s a world apart from a loving home. The study made use of 24 beagles, ages 9 through 17. We think a 17 year old beagle should be curled up at the foot of the bed and not living in a contract lab.

CAARE tried to determine where CanCog obtains the beagles from. One publication stated they were obtained from yet another contract lab, VivoCore Colony. The string of contract labs paints a bad picture of animals’ living their lives in cold, institutional settings.

Quincy Bioscience needs to give up animal experiments entirely and make a commitment to embrace a no animal testing policy. None of the current experiments are related to FDA compliance. Prevagen® has already been affirmed by the FDA in March 2013 as safe for human use.

Please send your letter today asking Quincy Bioscience to end animal tests and let the company know you will boycott Prevagen and Neutricks until they do.

Thank you for taking action for animals in labs!

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research (CAARE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals.

Your donation helps us carry out our mission to speak up for animals in laboratories, and to end animal suffering by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals.