Charles River Laboratories Provides Business Updates

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) today announced two planned acquisitions of K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd. and PathoQuest SAS; the addition of Dr. Namandjé N. Bumpus as Chief Scientific and Innovation Officer; and is also providing an update on recent business trends and a preliminary 2026 outlook at the J.P. Morgan 44th Annual Healthcare Conference.

James C. Foster, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles River Laboratories said, “As the biopharmaceutical industry evolves, 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 programs. Today’s announcement of the planned acquisitions will help us accomplish these goals and invest in core areas of growth. The addition of K.F. will promote enhanced efforts to secure and safeguard our supply chain for traditional in vivo testing practices, while PathoQuest will further enable us to champion methodologies to reduce animal use, including through its in vitro, next-generation sequencing technologies. We are focused on continuing to lead the industry through advances in drug development, and the addition of Dr. Bumpus to drive our scientific innovation further supports this goal. We look forward to welcoming Dr. Bumpus, as well as the teams at PathoQuest and K.F., to help enhance our ability to serve our clients.”

“We believe we are well positioned as we move into 2026 with a clear strategic direction, actions underway to unlock shareholder value, and are cautiously optimistic that the positive signs in the biopharmaceutical demand environment will continue this year. To support this view, we are pleased with the recent improvement in DSA demand trends during the second half of 2025, including a fourth-quarter increase in the net book-to-bill,” Mr. Foster concluded.

Planned Acquisition of K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd.

Charles River Laboratories has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd., a Cambodia-based provider of non-human primates (NHPs) for regulatory required biomedical, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research purposes.

Strategic Rationale

The planned K.F. acquisition will further strengthen and secure the supply chain for the Company’s Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA) segment, and will also generate meaningful operating margin improvement through significant cost savings on NHP supply. Charles River has been a long-term supply partner of K.F., and over the last two years, K.F. supplied the Company with slightly above 30% of the globally sourced NHPs used in its DSA operations. The planned ownership of K.F. will enable greater oversight and operational control of a key supply source, including a continued focus on biosecurity, regulatory compliance, and audit practices. Including Noveprim, Charles River’s NHP supplier in Mauritius for which it owns a 90% controlling interest, the transaction will enable the Company to own and internally source most of its future, annual NHP supply requirements for the DSA segment.