Chief Executive Officer, President & Chairman, Charles River Laboratories
Search every verified James Foster interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. James Foster, Chairman, President, and CEO of Charles River Laboratories, marked his 50th anniversary with the company in April 2026 by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. He is set to retire as CEO in May 2026 but will remain on the board of directors. In interviews, Foster described his tenure as a "great run" and said he is most proud of the company's scientific depth, portfolio sophistication, and its "familial" and "team oriented" culture. He stated that Charles River works on over 80% of drugs approved by the FDA in the last five years. On the company's Q4 2025 earnings call in February 2026, Foster reported that 2025 financial results were at the upper ends of previously provided revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share ranges. He noted a stabilization of the biopharma demand environment and "substantial improvements" in Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA) net bookings. Foster announced the planned acquisitions of KF Cambodia and Pathquest, stating they align with core competencies and are expected to generate operating margin improvement through cost savings on non-human primate (NHP) sourcing. He expressed cautious optimism that favorable DSA demand trends will continue in 2026, with a return to organic revenue growth expected in the second half of the year.
“Let me be clear. Charles River firmly believes that any action to restrict the availability of purpose bred NHPs from Cambodia could have significant and unintended consequences that will impact biomedical research globally. Legally sourced NHPs are critical regulatory required models to help ensure human patient safet...”
“Based on our anticipated capital needs this year and coupled with our belief that we are currently undervalued, it is an opportune time to allocate most of our free cash flow to stock repurchases in 2025 under our $1 billion authorization. We intend to repurchase approximately $350 million in stock over the next month...”
“We were pleased that our 2025 financial results were at the upper ends of the revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share ranges that we provided in November. Beyond our financial results, the fourth quarter capped a year that was marked by the stabilization of the biofarma demand environment, including substantial improve...”
“In January, we announced the planned acquisitions of the assets of KF Cambodia and Pathquest. Both of these acquisitions are squarely aligned with our core competencies and are the result of lengthy successful partnerships. KF, the acquisition of which has already closed, has been our longtime NHP supplier in Cambodia...”
“NAMS including AI has promise but it still has challenges with data availability and proof of concept. So it will be a gradual longerterm evolution led by science and the validation of new capabilities over time particularly in a regulated safety assessment environment where patient safety is paramount.”
“We expect the operating margin will improve by 20 to 50 basis points from 19.8% in 2025 driven principally by the benefit from the acquisition of the assets of KF Cambodia. This is expected to translate into non-GAAP earnings per share in a range from $10.70 to $11.20 representing growth of approximately 4 to 9%.”
“We are seeing NMS across a big swath of our client base. We would say that you know big pharma has been looking at utilizing in vitro or non-animal technologies sort of forever. ... We also have another business we talked about in the call retrogenics. We're looking at uh offtarget effects of drugs which is really real...”
“We've always been about the science and so I think all of our clients know that we do exceptional work. We're working on more than 80% of the drugs over the last 5 years and probably that are approved and probably at least 80% of the drugs are unapproved.”
“I tried for years to try to do a leverage buyout and to get get out of there finally the CEO who had done the deal to buy Charles River was replaced and the guys said that they were focusing on healthc care above the neck. So I called him and I said that doesn't have anything to do with mice and rats does it? And he sa...”
“The two fundamental changes I would say are particularly if you look at toxicology that was done internally by all the pharmaceutical companies. They did it themselves. They did it well. They figured out that that um we could do things more quickly. we could do things um uh lower cost than them doing it themselves. Pro...”
“I think it's kind of the punchline here. It's now 12 to 14 years. Used to be when I first started it was like seven to eight, which was still a long time. By the way, the patent starts to run when they file their INDs. So they eat up a bunch of the patent life before the drug is even approved, which is horrible. Um, an...”
“I would hope that that that ethos and that that cultural norm would continue when we do when we do M&A when we buy companies we look for those things. We look for how they treat how how they treat each other. What kind of culture is that? Not just they make money and not just that they have great science. Those two thi...”
“We do drug safety testing for pretty much all the pharmaceutical companies and almost all the biotech companies, ensuring the drugs are safe and effective. We work on over 80% of all the drugs that are approved over the last 5 years by the FDA.”
“Dear shareholders, this is James Foster, CEO and chairman of Firex Biolabs. I'm thrilled to provide you with an update on the exciting developments at Virax and share a comprehensive outline of our upcoming milestones.”
“Our virus immune platform is set to revolutionize how individuals manage their immune health.”
... standing by and welcome to the Charles River Laboratory's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call this call is ...
CRL - Earnings call Q2 2025.
CRL - Earnings call Q1 2025.
CRL - Earnings call Q3 2025.
We are joined by retiring CEO Jim Foster to discuss his 50 year career at Charles River. Through his decades in the industry, Foster has seen it all - from the shift toward new approach methodologies, through mergers and sales and public offerings, to shaping the future of Charles River's culture. Listen now to hear how it all started, how we got here, and where we are heading in the future.
Our CEO, James Foster, addresses shareholders about the mid-year developments for ViraxImmune™, ViraxClear™, and the ...
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