Charles River CEO cites advantages of Chinese labor

Charles River Laboratories' $1.6 billion acquisition of China's WuXi PharmaTech positions the preclinical specialist to expand its contract work in drug discovery at a time that Big Pharma companies are consolidating and farming out a larger portion of their early-stage research work. And Charles River CEO makes it clear that the personnel in China who will be joining the company are one of the big attractions. "For some period of time, there'll be a wage benefit to using Chinese labor,'' CEO James C. Foster tells Boston Globe reporter Robert Weisman. "The labor is plentiful, cheaper, and better educated than in the States. It pains me to say so, but it's true.'' Story