Charles River (CRL) Opens a RightSource Lab in Stevenage
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. CRL recently announced the opening of a new RightSource facility in the United Kingdom. The news follows the collaboration between Charles River and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) to help companies based at CGT Catapult’s Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre increase their productivity by working with RightSource services.
The latest RightSource facility is set to be unveiled in the heart of Stevenage’s biotech hub and will serve the greater London & Cambridge area. The Stevenage location will provide services to the United Kingdom’s market, with a particular focus on cell and gene therapy.
More on RightSource
To keep up with the unprecedented pace of the biopharmaceutical industry, Charles River developed RightSource — a flexible biologics testing lab that makes fast, reliable quality control (QC) more accessible to a broader reach of companies. The platform-based QC lab will be operated by Charles River employees who will utilize the company’s quality management systems, test methods and standard operating procedures to support QC testing needs.
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RightSource provides clients with enhanced turnaround times by bringing testing closer to manufacturing facilities, providing industry-leading capabilities without delays caused by shipping samples. The RightSource business model significantly reduces upfront lab setup costs, shields the client from the regulatory burden of managing a QC lab and allows for leveraging its robust scientific expertise directly where clients need it most.
RightSource also offers a fully dedicated lab-in-a-box solution for biopharmaceutical companies looking to have QC testing carried out onsite. While RightSource Stevenage offers decentralized testing proximal to biotech hubs, the solution offers individual clients the convenience of in-facility testing. Unlike standard insourcing solutions, RightSource offers clients the complete Charles River package of proprietary assays with all the associated quality, scientific and digital platforms.
News on the Partnership
The CGT Catapult is an independent innovation and technology organization committed to the advancement of cell and gene therapies with a vision of a thriving industry, delivering life-changing advanced therapies to the world. Through the partnership with CRL, CGT Catapult will assist its collaborators by providing streamlined and frictionless sample transfers and digital integration.
As Charles River continues investing in digitalization, all RightSource clients will automatically receive enhanced products and services, increasing the value of the partnership as time goes on. The RightSource Stevenage lab will be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Industry Prospects
Per a Research report, the global cell and gene therapy market was valued at $22.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 28.7% by 2030.
Other Highlights
Earlier in May 2023, Charles River announced a collaboration with Wheeler Bio, Inc. — a contract development and manufacturing organization — to implement RightSource at Wheeler Bio’s current good manufacturing practice biologics manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, OK. The collaboration contributes significantly to Wheeler Bio’s goal of cost-effectively increasing the speed and efficiency of the delivery of important therapeutics to patients worldwide.
Price Performance
Over the past year, Charles River shares have increased 8.3% against the industry’s fall of 4.7%.
Zacks Rank and Key Picks
Charles River carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Haemonetics HAE, Quanterix QTRX and Intuitive Surgical ISRG, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Haemonetics stock has risen 27.3% in the past year. Earnings estimates for Haemonetics have remained constant at $3.82 in 2023 and $4.07 in 2024 in the past 30 days.
HAE’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 19.39%. In the last reported quarter, it posted an earnings surprise of 38.16%.
Estimates for Quanterix’s 2023 loss per share have remained constant at 97 cents in the past 30 days. Shares of the company have surged 221.9% in the past year compared with the industry’s rise of 1.4%.
QTRX’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 30.39%. In the last reported quarter, it posted an earnings surprise of 55.56%.
Estimates for Intuitive Surgical’s 2023 earnings have remained constant at $5.57 per share in the past 30 days. Shares of the company have increased 57.3% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 3.8%.
ISRG’s earnings beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed in one, the average surprise being 4.19%. In the last reported quarter, Intuitive Surgical delivered an earnings surprise of 7.58%.
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