Charles River Laboratories International has plans to build a new facility in Sherbrooke, Quebec, to support its preclinical services business. The new facility, which will be located in the company’s newly constructed Sherbrooke Biomedical Park, will provide drug discovery and development services to the pharma/biopharma industries.

The new facility will be approximately 300,000 sq. ft., 25% of which will be constructed in a first phase that is scheduled to open in 1Q2009. Construction of the remaining phases will be based on market demand. The Sherbrooke facility will employ 1,000 people who will work with the staff of 1,600 currently located in the company’s Montreal facility.

James C. Foster, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Charles River Laboratories said, “We are very pleased to add this new project to our Preclinical Services expansion program. As customers choose strategic outsourcing as a means to improve the drug development process, they are increasingly turning to Charles River for our scientific expertise and the high-quality preclinical services we provide. This new facility will enable us to continue to support that demand from our global customers.”

“Our goal was to identify a location similar to Montreal, equally convenient for our customers, where we could situate this new facility. Sherbrooke is ideal for many reasons, including its proximity to world-class educational institutions offering well-educated laboratory and life sciences graduates, as well as opportunities for collaborations and access to cutting-edge technology,” said Christopher Perkin, corporate vice president and president, Canadian Preclinical Services. “We greatly appreciate the assistance of the government of Quebec, which is supporting this project, as we support our customers’ efforts to bring drugs to market faster and more cost effectively.”