Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. is an American contract research company headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, a major supplier of research models and preclinical drug development and safety testing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. It was founded in 1947 by Henry Foster, initially to breed laboratory rodents of consistent genetic and health quality for use in biomedical research, taking its name from the Charles River near its original Massachusetts facility. Charles River expanded well beyond its original rodent-breeding business into a broad range of outsourced early-stage drug development services, including toxicology and safety testing, and it remains a leading supplier of the specialized research models still used across the industry.