Charles River Enhances Its Discovery and Imaging Services Capabilities with the Addition of Piedmont Research Center
May 1, 2009 – Charles River today completed the acquisition of the business and assets of Piedmont Research Center, LLC (Piedmont), a provider of preclinical discovery services focused on efficacy studies primarily in oncology and other therapeutic areas for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, for approximately $46 million. The addition of Piedmont expands the Discovery and Imaging Services business of Charles River, and makes it one of the largest providers of non-GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) efficacy studies.
Piedmont offers non-GLP preclinical efficacy testing services with expertise in the key therapeutic area of oncology. The company also offers a range of other in vivo, in vitro and analytical services to supplement its core pharmacology offering. Piedmont will continue to operate from its North Carolina headquarters.
As our clients increasingly align their research and development efforts by therapeutic area, we believe it is critical that we provide deep expertise in their key areas of focus. Through Charles River Discovery and Imaging Services, which includes MIR Preclinical Services (acquired in 2008), we have established ourselves as a premier provider of non-GLP pharmacology and in vivo imaging services for the evaluation of compound efficacy.
Our therapeutic areas of expertise include oncology, cardiovascular, metabolism and inflammation, which represent four of the largest areas of biopharmaceutical research and development. We believe that we now have a market-leading platform that provides high-quality contract services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners as they increasingly choose strategic outsourcing as the means by which to improve pipeline throughput and reduce costs.
For more information about this acquisition or our full portfolio of Discovery and Imaging Services, click here or contact us at 1.877.CRIVER.1 (1.877.274.8371) or askcharlesriver@crl.com.