CRO

Charles River makes another buy: $64M for MA's Agilux

Charles River Laboratories’ acquisition spree is keeping the hits coming as the company picked up Massachusetts-based Agilux this week for $64 million. It’s Charles River’s seventh deal in just over two years, laying out more than $1 billion in that time.

Worcester’s Agilux specializes in small- and large-molecule bioanalytical, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetic and pharmacology services. The company has been building up in the last few years on its preclinical research base, having expanded its capabilities in oncology and mass spectrometry, among others.

Charles River is paying in cash, and Agilux is expected to generate $27 million in revenue in 2016.

Charles River’s buys over the last few years have been both prolific and major, the largest of which was a $585 million for WIL Research in January this year. Others have included a November $36 million output for cancer discovery and validation specialist Oncotest and $212 million for Celsis, which is focused on quality-control testing. Before those, it spent $179 million on Argenta and BioFocus, two companies previously owned by Galapagos. And in late 2014, Charles River bought ChanTest, which specializes in early-stage development.

“The acquisition of Agilux Laboratories supports Charles River’s strategy to offer clients a broader, integrated portfolio that enables them to work with us continuously from the earliest stages of drug research through the nonclinical development process,” Charles River CEO James Foster said. “Agilux reinforces the linkage between our discovery and safety assessment capabilities, and provides clients with a comprehensive testing solution that spans their discovery and regulated drug development needs. We expect to leverage Agilux’s strong client relationships in the Boston-Cambridge biohub, one of the most significant concentrations of medical research in the world, and expand the reach of its discovery bioanalytical services offering to Charles River’s global client base.”