Harlan Laboratories has expanded its specialty research production facility in Bresso, Italy. The expansion in southern Europe allows the company to provide its portfolio of contract breeding and health monitoring services to customers in both mainland Europe and the U.K.

“Expanding our facility in southern Europe is a significant part of our global growth strategy to provide pharmaceutical and biotech companies throughout Europe with the highest quality services that support their research models,” said Joe Meyer, vice president of Global Commercial Operations, Harlan Laboratories. “The expansion of our contract breeding and health monitoring services facility reinforces Harlan Laboratories’ commitment to provide researchers around the globe with critical services that ensure the specialized models they use in their research will produce reliable and consistent results.”  

The expanded operations are designed to mirror Harlan’s contract breeding service capabilities already established in the U.K. These services include rederivation, cryopreservation, revitalization, colony management, contract breeding and quarantine services.

As with all of Harlan Laboratories’ facilities, the Bresso site was designed with the utmost consideration for the health and welfare of research models. The enhanced facility includes dedicated areas for quarantine to reduce the transmission of pathogens between animal colonies and also features an expanded and updated health monitoring laboratory. In addition, the company incorporated the Locus Technology’s LabTracks software system, which provides a fully integrated animal husbandry network that supports realtime inventory data, records on cryopreserved materials, and information on cage capacity and the health status of animals within the facility.

The facility expansion comes on the heels of Harlan Laboratories’ recent announcement that the company has increased its specialty model production capacity in North America by more than 30% with expansions of its facilities in Indianapolis, IN and Livermore, CA.