Charles River Laboratories International has agreed to spend US$510 million to acquire the assets of its Cambodia-based provider of non-human primates for biomedical, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research.

The US contract research company says the planned acquisition of K.F. ( Cambodia ) Ltd will strengthen and secure its discovery and safety assessment business. It is also expected to cut costs.

According to a statement released on January 12, the Cambodian company supplied Charles River Labs with more than 30% of the globally-sourced non-human primates used in its discovery and safety assessment operations.

Securing future supply

Together with Noveprim, its Mauritian supplier in which it owns a 90% stake, the deal will allow the company to own and internally source most of its future supply of non-human primates, the statement says.

“The addition of K.F. will promote enhanced efforts to secure and safeguard our supply chain for traditional in vivo testing practices,” says James Foster, chairman of the Massachusetts-based company.

Charles River Labs is “cautiously optimistic that the positive signs in the biopharmaceutical demand environment will continue this year”, Foster says. “We are committed to remaining a leader in regulatory-required drug development solutions.

“We intend to accomplish this by pairing the best traditional testing methods to ensure patient safety with scientific advancements and innovative solutions to drive greater efficiency and success in our clients’ drug development programmes."

Reducing animal use

Meanwhile, the company has exercised its option to acquire for €51.6 million ( US$60 million ) the remaining 79% it does not already own of PathoQuest SAS, a French provider of next-generation sequencing solutions.

“PathoQuest will further enable us to champion methodologies to reduce animal use, including through its in vitro, next-generation sequencing technologies,” Foster says.

The two transactions are expected to close in the first quarter.

According to the Singapore-based Primate Specialist Group,  Cambodia is home to ten species from three families of non-human primates,  notably the common long-tailed macaque ( Macaca fascicularis fascicularis ) which is widely used in scientific research.