Charles River Laboratories International : US COVID Cases Spike (Abstract Science, June 21 – 27)
June 26, 2020 at 12:25 pm EDT
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Also: virtual clinical trials are fast-tracking COVID studies, and CRISPR dangers in human embryos
Coronavirus: US hits record high in daily cases
(BBC,6/26/20)
The US reached a record daily number of coronavirus cases this week with 40,000 on Thursday. Extrapolating from available data, the CDC estimates that 20 million Americans have been infected total, but even the 2.4 million test-confirmed cases is more than any other country. Current 'hotspot' states include Texas, Arizona, and Florida where public health measures and mask-wearing have been lax.
Virtual clinical trials now being used to fast-track drug development during coronavirus crisis
(Douglas Quenqua, CNBC,6/25/20)
The article discusses the rise in popularity of remote participation in clinical trials, or decentralized trials. In this model, the patient or participant would receive everything they need for the trial through the mail and would engage in telemedicine reporting of symptoms and progress. This method would not work for safety trials or for drugs to treat acute health problems that requirespecialized testing, but they could be useful for lowering the barrier for participation in clinical trials to allow for more diverse patient pools.
CRISPR gene editing in human embryos wreaks chromosomal mayhem
(Heidi Ledford, Nature, 6/25/20)
Several (non-peer reviewed) studies have claimed that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool can causeunwanted changes to the genome of human embryos at or near the target site. While previous studies have shown off-target effects farther from the target, these studies claim to show changesthat might have been missed in previous studies due to their proximity to the target site.Research on human embryo editing with CRISPR began in 2015, so the technology is still very much in the early stages.
-Stories compiled by Senior Scientific Writer Mary Parker
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Charles River Laboratories International Inc. published this content on 26 June 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 26 June 2020 16:23:09 UTC
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. specializes in the development of products and services in the field of research and non-clinical drug development for pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and academic institutions. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- discovery and safety assessment services (63.4%): discovery services for the identification, screening and selection of main compounds for the development of new drug candidates, and in vivo and in vitro testing, including pharmacokinetic, bioanalytical, metabolic, toxicological and pathological studies, for the safety assessment of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, animal health products, chemical and agrochemical products and biocides;
- development and sale of research models and related services (19.2%): mice, rats, immunodeficient models, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, etc. The group also offers primary cells and specialized products (bioconservation products, freezing media for cell cultures, antigens, peptides, humanized mouse models, etc.) for the development and manufacture of new cell therapies ;
- development of solutions used in drug manufacturing processes (17.5%): products and services for microbiological testing, in vitro testing, endotoxin testing, microbial identification, development, manufacturing of avian vaccines, etc. The group also offers contract manufacturing services for cell and gene therapies.
Net sales break down by source of income between sales of services (83.3%) and sales of products (16.7%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (56.8%), Europe (26%), Canada (11.8%), Asia/Pacific (4.9%) and other (0.4%).
CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC. 
