Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. is an American

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry is a Medicine, medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or Self-medicate, self-administered b ...

specializing in

preclinical In drug development, preclinical development (also termed preclinical studies or nonclinical studies) is a stage of research that begins before clinical trials (testing in humans) and during which important feasibility, iterative testing and dr ...

and clinical

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...

and

cell therapy Cell therapy (also called cellular therapy, cell transplantation, or cytotherapy) is a therapy in which viable cells are injected, grafted or implanted into a patient in order to effectuate a medicinal effect, for example, by transplanting T- ...

services and supplies for the

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

medical device A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

industries. The company has over 150 facilities, operates in 21 countries, and employs over 21,000 people worldwide. Charles River Laboratories frequently criticized by

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

activists, who condemn the company's use of dogs and

primates Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians ( monkeys and apes). Primates arose 74–63 ...

for pharmaceutical research. The company is also a major harvester of blood from

horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only surviving xiphosurans. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or even crustaceans; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids like spiders, ticks, and scor ...

History

Charles River was founded in 1947 by Henry Foster, a young veterinarian who purchased one thousand rat cages from a Virginia farm and set up a one-person laboratory in Boston overlooking the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

. He supplied local researchers with laboratory animal models. In 1955, the company's headquarters were relocated to their current home in

Wilmington, Massachusetts Wilmington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Its population was 23,349 at the 2020 United States census. History Wilmington was first settled in 1665 and was officially incorporated in 1730, from parts of Woburn, Re ...

. The organization became an international entity in 1966 by opening a new animal production facility in France. The first commercial, comprehensive genetic monitoring program was implemented by Charles River in 1981. Three years later, they were acquired by Bausch & Lomb. In 1988, the organization began creating transgenic mice and rats. In the 1990s, they began ''in vitro'' endotoxin testing. In the 1990s, Jim Foster bought Charles River back from Bausch & Lomb, and the company later went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Charles River launched the Humane Care Imperative in 2002, designed to raise awareness and train employees on animal welfare's importance. The same year, they were named "Company of the Year" by The Boston Globe. The company introduced preconditioning services in 2005 to provide customers with study-ready animals. In 2008, Charles River signed a ten-year contract to partner with the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

and opened a facility in Frederick, Maryland. In April 2019, Charles River announced it would cease its

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

operations, moving the breeding of rodents for testing compounds to

Hollister, California Hollister is a city in and the county seat of San Benito County, located in the Central Coast region of California, United States. With a 2020 United States census population of 41,678, Hollister is one of the most populous cities in the M ...

. In March 2023, th
Born Free USA
animal welfare organization protested against Charles River's plan to export 1,000 endangered juvenile long-tail macaques to Cambodia for testing.

Acquisitions

In 1988, Charles River purchased Specific Pathogen Antigen Free Avian Services (SPAFAS) and serologic diagnostic services Merck, Sharp, and Dohme. Between 1996 and 2000, the company acquired Endosafe, Inc. and Sierra Biomedical. In October 2003, Charles River Laboratories merged with Inveresk, a research company based in the United Kingdom. The company was known then as Charles River Laboratories. Inveresk specialised in clinical research and pre-clinical testing, and their main facilities are in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. In late 2009, Charles River sold its Clinical Services Division in Edinburgh to Quotient Bioresearch. In 2010, Charles River Laboratories attempted to acquire WuXi PharmaTech, a China-based contract research organization, but the offer was withdrawn when the deal faced opposition from several large Charles River investors, including

Relational Investors Relational Investors was an activist investment fund based in San Diego, California. Founded in 1996 by Ralph V. Whitworth, the fund had $6 Billion in assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund un ...

, JANA Partners, and

Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman Group LLC is an American private, independent, employee-owned investment management firm. The firm manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for global institutional investors, advisors and high-ne ...

. The proxy advisory firm

RiskMetrics The RiskMetrics variance model (also known as exponential smoother) was first established in 1989, when Sir Dennis Weatherstone, the new chairman of J.P. Morgan, asked for a daily report measuring and explaining the risks of his firm. Nearly ...

had also recommended that Charles River's shareholders vote against the proposed deal. From 2008 to 2013, Charles River acquires several companies including NewLab Bioquality AG, MIR Preclinical Services, Piedmont Research Center, LLC, Cerebricon, Ltd., Accugenix, and Vital River, allowing the company to expand their research models and services portfolio to drug development and discovery markets in China. The acquisitions of Argenta and BioFocus in 2014 allowed Charles River to establish itself as a full-service, early-stage contract research organization with integrated ''in vitro'' and ''in vivo'' capabilities from target discovery through pre-clinical development. In July 2015, the company announced it would acquire Celsis International for $212 million. In 2016, the company announced it was set to acquire WIL Research for approximately $585 million in cash and Blue Stream Laboratories. In August 2017, the business announced it would acquire Brains On-Line. In January 2018, the company announced it would acquire KWS BioTest for up to £18 million ($24.4 million). In February of the same year, Charles River announced it would acquire MPI Research for approximately $800 million in cash. The transaction was completed on April 3, 2018. In February 2019, the company announced it would acquire Citoxlab for €448 million in cash (approximately $500 million), including the former acquisitions of the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

company, AccelLAB, Atlanbio and Solvo Biotechnology. The transaction was completed on April 29. In December of the same year the business announced it would acquire HemaCare for approximately $380 million in cash. In August 2020, the company announced it would acquir
Cellero
for $38 million in cash. In January 2021, the company announced it would acquire Distributed Bio, Inc., an antibody discovery business. In February 2021, Charles River announced it would acquire Cognate BioServices, Inc. for $875 million. In March 2021, Charles River announced the acquisition of Retrogenix for $48 million. In May 2021, Charles River announced the acquisition of Vigene Biosciences, a gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), for $292.5 million. In October 2021, a Japanese subsidiary of Charles River was acquired by

Jackson Laboratory The Jackson Laboratory (often abbreviated as JAX) is an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution which was founded by Clarence Cook Little in 1929. It employs over 3,000 employees in Bar Harbor, Maine; Sacramento, California; F ...

for $63M USD. In April 2022, the company announced it would acquire Explora BioLabs. In January 2023, the business announced it would acquire SAMDI Tech, Inc.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Contract research organizations Multinational health care companies Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Health care companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Wilmington, Massachusetts Life sciences industry Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange * Animal testing in the United States Animal testing in the United Kingdom 2000 initial public offerings 1947 establishments in Massachusetts Health care companies established in 1947

History

Acquisitions

See also

References

External links