Huntingdon Life Sciences facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Huntingdon Life Sciences

Industry	Contract research organisation for the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, crop protection, chemical, veterinary and food industries.
Founded	1951
Number of locations	United Kingdom, United States, Japan
Area served	Global
Key people	Brian Cass, Formerly Managing Director
Number of employees	>1,600

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a contract research organisation (CRO) founded in 1951 in Cambridgeshire, England. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 staff, it was until 2015 the largest non-clinical CRO in Europe. In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Harlan Laboratories, GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo, which later sold off the CRO part.

In 2009, HLS was bought outright and is now in private ownership. Prior to this, the latest annual report (2008) showed that the company had revenues of $US242.4m and an operating profit of 14.8%.

HLS is the third-largest non-clinical CRO in the world, and gained substantial attention for a high-profile animal rights campaign organized in response to its operations.

Locations

HLS has two facilities in the UK (Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and Eye, Suffolk), one in the USA (East Millstone, New Jersey) and an office in Japan (Tokyo).

History

Huntingdon Life Sciences was founded in the UK in 1951 as Nutrition Research Co. Ltd., a commercial organisation that initially focused on nutrition, veterinary, and biochemical research. The original facilities were split over two locations; the main offices were within Cromwell House in the town of Huntingdon, Cambs, UK; and the main laboratories were at the Hartford Field Station (just over a mile away). It then became involved with pharmaceuticals, food additives, and industrial and consumer chemicals. In 1959 it changed its name to Nutritional Research Unit Ltd. The company benefited in the early 1960s from increased government regulatory testing requirements, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1964 it was acquired by the U.S. medical supply firm of Becton Dickinson.

In April 1983, Becton Dickinson created Huntingdon Research Centre PLC. It then offered four million American depositary receipts (ADRs) for sale at $15 each, representing the company's entire interest in Huntingdon. In 1985, as it began to expand its operations, the company changed its name to Huntingdon International Holdings plc. In that year it established Huntingdon Analytical Services Inc. to conduct business in the United States.

To augment its CRO business, Huntingdon acquired Minnesota's Twin City Testing Laboratory Inc. and affiliated companies in 1985, followed by the acquisition of Nebraska Testing Corporation in 1986; Travis Laboratories and Kansas City Test Laboratory Inc. in 1989; and Southwestern Laboratories, Inc. in 1990. Huntingdon also diversified its operations, primarily in the United States, becoming involved in engineering and environmental services.

In 1987, HLS purchased Northern Engineering and Testing, Inc., and then in 1988 bought Empire Soils Investigations Inc., Chen Associates Inc., and Asteco Inc. In 1988 HLS was floated on the London Stock Exchange and in 1989 obtained a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1990 Huntingdon acquired the St. Louis branch of Envirodyne Engineers Inc. and Whiteley Holdings Ltd. And in 1991 it acquired Austin Research Engineers, Inc., followed by Travers Morgan Ltd.

By the early 1990s, Huntingdon was organised into three business groups: the Life Sciences Group, the Engineering/Environmental Group, and the Travers Morgan Group, which offered engineering and environmental consulting services outside of the United States. However, only the Life Sciences Group showed long-term promise. Travers Morgan was allowed to lapse into insolvency, control passed into other hands, and Huntingdon wrote off the investment. In 1995 the engineering and environmental businesses were sold to Maxim Engineers Inc. of Dallas, Texas.

To bolster its CRO business and reinforce its U.S. presence, Huntingdon in 1995 acquired the toxicology business of Applied Biosciences International for $32.5 million in cash, plus the Leicester Clinical Research Centre. The deal not only included a U.S. laboratory located near Princeton, New Jersey, it brought with it two British facilities as well. In 1997 Huntingdon International Holdings changed its name to Huntingdon Life Sciences Group. The U.K. subsidiary, Huntingdon Research Centre, changed its name to Huntingdon Life Sciences Ltd., while the U.S. business operated as Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc.

In 2002, HLS moved its financial centre to the United States and incorporated in Maryland as Life Sciences Research.

In 2009, HLS was bought outright and once again is in private ownership.

Core industries

HLS provides contract research organization services in pre-clinical and non-clinical biological safety evaluation research. As with other major CROs operating in this business area, its major business is serving the pharmaceutical industry. However, more than a third of its business comes from non-pharmaceutical sources, the most important of which is the crop protection industry which accounts for around 60% of their non-pharmaceutical business.

Staff numbers

The latest available public figures from 2008 show that HLS employs more than 1,600 staff across all of its facilities. They break down as:

Trade bodies and associations

• Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
• Bioindustry Association (BIA)
• Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC)
• Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
• Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME)
• Institute of Animal Technology (IAT)
• Understanding Animal Research (UAR)

Honours and awards

• Agrow Awards Best Supporting Role 2007
• Queens Award for Export Achievement 1982.

Use of animals

HLS uses animals in the biomedical research it conducts for its customers. The most recent numbers released state that in the UK around 60,000 animals are used annually. This number is broken down by species:

See also

In Spanish: Huntingdon Life Sciences para niños