Charles River Labs

Charles River Labs: a $4B/year near-monopoly on drug testing

Charles River Labs does animal testing as a service for biotech companies, using mice, rats, dogs and monkeys. Shaan says it works with about 80% of biotech companies and tests around 80% of drugs that reach market. It also paid roughly $500 million for a monkey-breeding supplier so it controls its own primate supply.

“So they basically have all the, like, the mice and the rats and the dogs and the monkeys all there, and they do this testing. They work with like 80% of biotech companies. Like, it's crazy. Like, the scale is pretty crazy. Even crazier, I think it's like 80% of drugs that go to market get tested with them. Like, they just have this absolute monopoly. They do $4 billion a year in revenue.”