Charles River Laboratories

Charles River Laboratories, Inc. is an American corporation specializing in a broad spectrum of pre-clinical and clinical laboratory services for the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries. It is the world's largest supplier of animals for laboratory experimentation, and has been described as the "General Motors of the laboratory animal industry. It also supplies a range of biomedical products and research and development outsourcing services for use in the pharmaceutical industry. According to its website, its customers include every major pharmaceutical and biotechnology company in the world, leading academic institutions, and government research centers.

The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered at 251 Ballardvale Street, Wilmington, Massachusetts, in the Boston metropolitan area. The chief executive officer is James C. Foster.

With over 8,500 employees, the company has facilities in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Controversy

The company has been the target of animal rights activists in the UK. It ran Shamrock Farm in West Sussex, which closed in 2000 following a 15-month campaign by animal rights campaigners. It also has a large site at Manston Road, Margate, Kent, where it breeds chickens, rabbits, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and gerbils.

A case of arson was perpetrated on the 29th june 2008 in Saint Germain sur l'Arbresle (Rhone - France) where 325 people work at the laboratories. The FLA (Front de Liberation des Animaux), french branch of the ALF, is suspected.

In May 2008, 32 Cynomolgus primates, also known as crab-eating Macaques, died of overheating at the Charles Rivers Laboratory in Sparks, Nevada after a climate system failure which was ignored by human attendants. Based on a whistleblower complaint, animal rights group PETA filed a complaint with the USDA who are investigating the incident.

August 2008, the Associate Press reported, "A former scientist at an animal testing facility in Nevada where 32 research monkeys were accidentally killed in May claims in a federal lawsuit he was fired partly because he opposed "cruel and inhumane mistreatment" of animals there."

Mergers

In October 2003, Charles River Laboratories merged with Inveresk, a UK owned Research Company. The Company was then known as Charles River Laboratories. Inveresk specialised in Clinical and Pre-clinical testing, and their main facilities are in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Pre-clinical division known as Charles River Laboratories, Preclinical Services Edinburgh Ltd, and the Clinical Division, is known as Charles River Clinical Services.

See also

• Laboratory animal suppliers in the United Kingdom

Notes

Further reading

• Charles Rivers Laboratories
• Charles River Clinical Services