Charles River Laboratories International recently announced the addition of five Charles River Accelerator and Development Lab (CRADL) locations in California and Washington, as part of the recent acquisition of Explora Biolabs.
This expansion, it outlined, will bring CRADL’s flexible, turnkey vivarium rental spaces to two new sites in San Diego, one in South San Francisco, one in Thousand Oaks as well as one in Seattle, marking Washington’s first-ever CRADL facility.
CRADL, it said, provides flexible, turnkey vivarium - animal research facilities or biological resource centers - rental space, which is supported by Charles River’s technical and veterinary support expertise in key biohubs.
The facilities will serve as premier spaces for organizations to launch or expand drug research programs with access to Charles River’s portfolio of drug discovery and non-clinical resources, it said. All existing and new locations offer vivarium space for biopharma and research organizations of all sizes, allowing scientists to outsource this element of their work and focus more time on streamlining research to start new projects and accelerate early-stage research more quickly, added the organization.
Explora Biolabs and CRADL operate a combined 27 facilities and provide over 370,000 square feet (34,374 sq. m) of rental capacity in biopharma hubs across the world.
“This network supports the growth of the entire biotech ecosystem in each city, allowing researchers to rapidly engage in their research while maintaining the flexibility to relocate or co-locate, knowing they will have reliable, high-quality facilities nearby.”
The Explora - CRADL vivarium network is aimed at providing biotech companies with on- and off-site vivarium services including vivarium management, facility design, rodent housing and equipment, supply chain management, regulatory oversight, and veterinary/husbandry staffing. For clients whose research programs or internal expertise is at capacity, Explora also runs preclinical contract research studies including full-solution and/or a-la-carte in vivo services in their biohub markets. Explora's CRO services include the design and execution of preclinical studies for oncology metabolic disease, and a variety of other common therapeutic areas; and pharmacokinetics and non-GLP toxicology studies.
EMA approval
Earlier this month, Charles River announced that it became the first CDMO in North America to receive EMA approval for commercial production of allogenic cell therapy drug products.
It has received regulatory approval - in the form of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification - to commercially produce allogeneic cell therapy drug products for distribution in Europe, from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The GMP certification of Charles River’s Memphis CDMO facility complements an existing GMP license for Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) production. The new approval comes after an inspection by the cell and gene therapy experts from the Italian inspectorate, Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA), performed on the EMA’s behalf.
The Memphis site can now manufacture and ship drug products intended for EU distribution.
