Under the agreement, Charles River retains its position as AstraZeneca’s preferred strategic partner for outsourced regulated safety assessment and development DMPK (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics).
The announcement of the renewed partnership comes as Charles River also reported slight Q2 revenue growth on a constant currency basis when compared to the same quarter last year.
“Continued strong revenue growth for our safety assessment and endotoxin and microbial detection businesses, coupled with stabilization of our research model business in North America and Europe, were the primary drivers of the 5.7% constant-currency revenue increase, and a 6% sequential revenue increase,” James Foster, Chairman, President and CEO of Charles River said.
That growth comes as the company also decided to reopen our facility in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. The company explored the idea of re-opening the site as Massachusetts-based biotech clients expressed interest in the proximity of the site to their operations. The site previously closed in 2010 on low demand.
As for the rest of the year, the company increased its constant-currency revenue guidance for 2015 to a range of 8.0% to 9.5%, primarily as a result of the acquisition of bacterial testing firm Celsis, which closed on July 24.