Charles River Laboratories Awarded $111.6 Million National Cancer Institute Contract

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a ten year, $111.6 million contract by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), doubling the size of its current contract with NCI.

For the last twelve years, Charles River has provided onsite staffing support to NCI's Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center (FCRDC), and this award expands and strengthens that collaboration by converting the current onsite staffing contract into a long-term dedicated space agreement.

In support of the contract, Charles River will construct a shared-use facility to provide research model production and related services to NCI-FCRDC, addressing NCI's current and future research support needs.

The shared-use facility will be constructed in close proximity to NCI-FCRDC's current operation in Frederick, Maryland, and Charles River expects construction to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.

The portion of the shared facility dedicated to meeting NCI-FCRDC's support needs will be staffed and operated by Charles River's Consulting and Staffing Services (CSS) group.

To support this contract, Charles River will dedicate an 80-person staff who will collaborate with NCI-FCRDC in providing genetically defined, pathogen-free, mice to support NCI/NIH (National Institutes of Health) funded research targeting the causes and treatments of infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, cancer, bioterrorism threats and other nationally recognized health issues.

Under the terms of the contract, Charles River will also assume responsibility for the management of the NCI/NIH Tumor and Natural Products Repositories, in support of the Developmental Therapeutics Program.

These Repositories store a wide array of tumor and other samples under carefully controlled conditions so that they can be made available to researchers who are exploring the causes and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

The portion of the shared-use facility not dedicated to NCI will be occupied by Charles River's Research Models and Services (RMS) business, which will use this new space as a platform for growth in the Baltimore/Washington geographic market.

This represents another significant step in Charles River's ongoing strategy to situate RMS production facilities in close proximity to targeted markets, and to make an increasingly broad range of Research Model Services easily accessible to customers.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to extend and expand our collaboration with NCI-FCRDC and to dedicate a significant portion of this new facility to supporting NCI's future research needs," stated James C. Foster, Charles River's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

"I am confident that our 60 years of experience in constructing and managing highly efficient, state-of-the-art research model facilities will be a meaningful contribution in advancing the government's research mission."

"I am equally confident that the construction of this new shared facility will provide significant opportunities for our Research Models & Services business to increase its presence in this targeted market."