Charles River Laboratories International Q3 sales up

On a GAAP basis, net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $44.7 million, or $0.63 per diluted share, compared to $42.8 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2007.

For the first nine months of 2008, net sales increased by 13.1% to $1.03 billion from $912.6 million in the same period in 2007. Foreign exchange contributed approximately 3.2% to the sales growth rate.

On a GAAP basis, net income was $140 million, or $1.98 per diluted share, for the first nine months of 2008, compared to $117.5 million, or $1.72 per diluted share, for the same period in 2007.

James Foster, chairman, president and CEO, said: “Our clients are continuing to invest in drug discovery and development, but they are facing a range of unprecedented challenges from drugs losing patent protection to the availability of funding for small biotech companies. To address these challenges, our clients are restructuring their businesses, reprioritizing their drug development pipelines and shifting focus to drugs in late-stage development.

“These actions are leading to significant and accelerating study slippage and delays, pushing work from 2008 into 2009. They are continuing to outsource, but due to heightened cost controls and year-end budget constraints, are spending in a more measured way. We expect these conditions and headwinds from foreign exchange to continue. As a result, we now anticipate our overall 2008 sales and earnings will be lower than our previous forecast.”