Our Commitment to Corporate Citizenship

We believe our contributions to drug development and healthcare treatments can positively affect global healthcare, animal health, human health, and well-being. We are committed to being the indispensable, global scientific partner for our clients by providing scientific expertise and collaboration.

The discovery and development of new therapeutics is a long, complex, and rigorous process and we work alongside our clients to accelerate patients’ access to safe and effective therapies. We embrace the opportunity to support research at every point along the drug discovery and development continuum with a mission to identify new innovative solutions to solve one of the toughest barriers to new therapies - drug development timelines. We believe that the work we do today can create a better tomorrow where every day, every hour, every minute makes a difference in the lives of patients and their families. Because every moment matters.

Since 1947, Charles River has been in the business of providing research models required for the research and development of new drugs, devices, and therapies. We are the industry-leading, global provider of research models, and we’ve built upon this legacy to develop a diverse portfolio of products and services that spans the entire drug continuum from discovery to development and manufacturing. We are committed to providing the scientific expertise our clients require when and where they need it.

Our broad portfolio of products and services allows clients to enhance their productivity and effectiveness, while lowering costs and increasing speed to market. We are committed to reducing the timeline to develop safe and innovative new treatments for patients who desperately need them. It takes at least ten years to develop a new therapeutic and the average cost associated with researching and developing each successful drug is an estimated $2.6 billion. While these figures may seem daunting, there is hope. As we look to the future, we are embarking on a journey to transform the drug development process and deliver innovative, safe, and effective treatments to patients, faster.

We are embracing the opportunity to lead our industry into the next frontier of drug development to better serve patients, where every minute, every hour, every day makes a difference to save lives. Advancements in technology and innovation are at the forefront of global drug research and development. We will harness the power of technology to accelerate the drug development process and advance biomedical research. Our collective efforts are formidable and together, we will work with purpose and speed to help the patients who rely on us to deliver effective therapies.

This digital revolution aspires us to push the envelope to ensure we not only offer the best science but can also leverage digital innovations and platforms to drive more value. We recently launched into a new frontier of scientific data with Apollo™, an innovative platform that allows clients to access and share study-related information in a secure environment while unlocking a new world of speed and accessibility. We are creating a solid foundation to harness our full digital potential by leveraging technology and data, and working in an agile way to drive industry transformation.

Charles River supports an environment where privacy, security, collaboration, transparency, and innovation are seamless. In doing so, we are focused on ensuring respect for the fundamental rights of all humans across our value chain by following the highest global human rights and labor practices to meet the increasing expectations of our key stakeholders.

As we embrace our value of lead, we are proud of our strong presence across regulatory expert committees and monitoring authorities. We were recently named among the most cybersecure companies by Forbes, ranking first within the Research and Development industry. Additionally, our ISO 27001 Certification, an international standard for information security management systems (ISMS), reflects our commitment to the protection and integrity of our client's information at the highest level. This enables us to provide exceptional regulatory guidance and oversight for our client's work, products, and services that will allow them to meet or exceed their strategic objectives.

We believe that creating and maintaining a culture of integrity is the shared responsibility of every Charles River employee. As our business evolves and grows, we continue to enhance and improve our corporate citizenship and governance strategy to ensure that every aspect of our operations reflects our values and commitment to leadership.

We strive for continuous improvement and work to maintain a superior benchmark for transparency and accountability. We aim to develop a holistic sustained Government Relations (GR) function – combining policy influence with regulatory affairs – so we can enhance our reputation among the public and public officials as well as track and shape government policy in alignment with our business objectives.

Animals play a critical role in developing medicines and treatments for health conditions and diseases. The humane care and well-being of the animals we work with is one our core values and we believe they should be treated with respect and dignity. The Charles River Humane Care Imperative (HCI) guides our commitment to uphold high standards of humane care and well-being for research animals.

Our HCI includes establishing industry best practices and providing education and training to increase awareness of the importance of humane care, fostering animal welfare worldwide. Our people - whether they work with animals or not - are committed to the highest level of animal welfare. We comply with standards of practice and accepted guidance for the care and use of laboratory animals. Moreover, we participate in voluntary oversight programs, such as AAALAC International that promotes the responsible treatment of animals in science through a voluntary accreditation program, to assess our compliance through in-depth evaluations of our facilities and practices.

The 3Rs principle (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) was developed over 50 years ago to provide a framework for performing animal research. We have a long and proud history of investing in and embracing the components of this important principle. We are committed to leading the industry in adopting the 3Rs and identifying technologies and solutions to reduce the use of animals while protecting patient safety.

Our role as a trusted advisor and business partner is built on our unwavering commitment to compliance and ethics in all that we do. We believe that by maintaining the highest ethical standards, we set an example for appropriate business practices in our industry. Moreover, our culture of compliance and integrity allows us to attract and retain exceptional talent and makes us an indispensable partner to our clients and stakeholders.

The Charles River Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the Code) is a critical part of how we conduct business. The Code describes many of the legal standards and policies that apply to our business, the responsibilities we share for maintaining a positive and ethical work environment, and to whom you can ask questions or raise concerns about legal, compliance, or ethics issues and outlines the available resources.

We take an uncompromising stance on the protection of human rights in our own operations, and we expect our supply chain partners to adhere to our same standards of excellence. We are committed to compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and international conventions, and believe that every individual is born free and equal and deserves to be treated fairly and with dignity.

Our priorities include running a global human rights and labor practices program that ensures respect for the fundamental rights of all humans across our value chain, aligns with leading practices and meets the increasing expectations of our key stakeholders (including our people, our customers, our investors, and our communities).

We are proud of our strong presence across regulatory expert committees and monitoring authorities. This allows us is to provide exceptional regulatory guidance and oversight for our client's work, as well as products and services that will enable them to meet or exceed their strategic objectives. We maintain a strong presence across regulatory expert committees and monitoring authorities.

Quality Assurance is a key to our success in maintaining compliance as well as mitigating risk and ensuring global client satisfaction. To manage our exacting standards of quality, we leverage our Quality Management Systems (QMS) for review, tracking, and monitoring.

Establishing a culture of quality through ownership is a pillar of our core values. Our corporate policies on quality and data integrity provide the base for each business unit to establish rigorous regulatory management and data collection practices for critical decision-making. Management reviews and approves policies and standard operating procedures that drive our Quality Systems as part of their overarching roles for assurance for compliance.

Our values, Care, Lead, Own, and Collaborate, are demonstrated in every aspect of our business. We encourage a culture of purpose, continuous learning, and well-being for our people from day one. These values and the behaviors they inspire make up our CRL DNA and guide how we make decisions, grow our future leaders, and pave the way for the years ahead.

We are committed to building a safe, inclusive, equitable, and welcoming global workplace that brings out the best in our people. Building teams with diverse backgrounds and perspectives helps strengthen our business, increases our ability to innovate and advance scientific breakthroughs, and deepens our impact on healthcare.

We are dedicated to creating a workplace where everyone can succeed and thrive. Our focus on DE&I is anchored in five strategic pillars: Building Awareness and Understanding, Strengthen Belonging and Inclusion, Increase Diverse Representation, Focus on Equity, and Partner with our Communities.

Employee engagement and development begin on day one and are linked to everything we do. As a growing organization, it is imperative that every employee feels connected to and engaged in the important work that we do. We are committed to investing in tools, resources, and training to ensure our people thrive in their roles, reach their highest potential, and have endless opportunities to grow and build their career.

We believe that learning is critical to business success and is an expectation for all employees. Every day there are moments where employees can own their development and aim for their highest potential. Curiosity is celebrated, and our team members can ask big questions and be inspired to own the answers. Here we are energized by working with the collective brainpower of our global team to create a better way.

We are committed to supporting our people in their well-being journey by providing resources and tools that align with our five pillars: Career, Emotional, Financial, Physical, and Social & Community.

To support well-being, we provide access to an international Employee Assistant Program (iEAP) for all employees and their household members. Our employees also have a premium membership access to Care.com and free access to Wellable, a streaming platform of fitness classes and mindfulness sessions. As well, our Emotional Health and Wellness Employee Resource Group provides a community of support for employees experiencing emotional health and wellness challenges at home and work. They offer resources, programming, activities and initiatives to strengthen emotional health and wellness and to help employees cope with life’s challenges.

In addition, we offer a global Employee Relief Fund to help employees who are facing financial challenges immediately after a natural disaster or an unforeseen personal hardship.

We believe in treating employees and applicants with dignity, decency, and respect. Our commitment to equality in the workplace spans across all employment-related decisions, from hiring and promotions to transfers and compensation, as well as career development programs. Our employment decisions are free of bias and based on merit, experience, and talent potential without regard to race, color, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity expression), religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, marital or family status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, military or veteran status, genetic information, compensation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Our goal is to continue to build a talented workforce reflective of the communities in which we live. As a result, we take affirmative actions in our local communities to ensure equal employment opportunities for minorities, women, disabled individuals, and covered veterans.

The aim of our Employee Health and Safety program is to ensure every single employee goes home from work in the same physical condition in which they showed up at work, if not better. Managed as part of our environment, health, safety, and sustainability (EHS&S) global program, our approach to employee health and safety includes continuous identification of safety performance improvement opportunities and collaboration with both site leaders and senior leaders to promote a culture of safety. Through our efforts, we achieved a 10.6% reduction in Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) from 2018 through 2022 in support of our goal to reduce TRIR 50% by 2030.

The 2021 rollout of our EHS&S Global Operating Framework (GOF) is driving safety improvements at our sites globally by harmonizing program requirements and expectations, as well as promoting and sharing best practices and model site programs.

In addition, the global implementation of the EHS&S Management Information System (MIS)—Enablon, in 2022 continues to balance and promote consistency in the way we manage, track, and record incidents and leading indicators, including near misses and unsafe conditions. The EHS&S MIS also allows us to conduct proactive safety inspections and assign corrective actions to individuals more easily.

We are committed to investing in the communities where we live and work. We believe that a healthier future belongs to us all, and through our CRL Cares Programs, we invest and serve our communities with both our time and philanthropic giving. We are proud to be the difference in our local communities across our three Community Areas of Focus:

• Thriving Communities: Meaningfully partnering with organizations, such as food banks, emergency shelters, and youth and family service agencies that provide essential human services to children and vulnerable populations
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education: Introducing today’s youth to the possibilities of a career in STEM, and in doing so, inspiring the next generation of scientists and difference-makers. We do this by providing students access to quality STEM materials and opportunities to engage in STEM hands on
• Health Outcomes: Championing disease education and awareness across our key areas of research impact, such as oncology and rare disease. Our annual Purpose Months – Rare Disease Month and Oncology Awareness Month – are opportunities for our people to engage in the impact of our work in these therapeutic areas and to reflect on the fact that we remain in a race for cures for patients in need around the world

Creating a healthier world starts with our daily actions. We are dedicated to promoting a healthy, safe, and sustainable workplace as an integral part of our commitment to being a good corporate citizen. Working in a healthy, safe, and sustainable manner is embedded in everything we do, and every decision we make. Our approach to EHS&S practices continuously evolves and expands with our global footprint and is guided by our Global Policy on Safety and Sustainability.

Employees in all our businesses and support functions are encouraged to actively engage as leaders in our sustainability initiatives, which include:

• Energy conserving measures such as turning off lights when not needed, closing fume hood sashes at end of day and the conversion of lighting to efficient LED technology
• Waste minimization including reusing and recycling where possible minimizing the amount of waste we send to a landfill. Partnering with our suppliers to promote the purchase of more sustainable products
• Working to ensure that sustainability considerations are incorporated into our policies, work practices, and decision making

For more information about our EHS&S programs and progress, email [email protected] or corporateEHS&[email protected].

Our supply chain partners are an integral part of our business and we rely on supply chain contractors, consultants, suppliers, and agents to help us progress toward our business and EHS&S goals. With the help of our suppliers, we operate responsibly by ensuring quality, accountability, and visibility across our value chain. As a member of both the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) and Energize, we expect our suppliers to act both responsibly and sustainably. While our Scope 3 GHG emissions have increased 26.7% compared to a baseline of 2019, we continue to engage with our suppliers to promote more sustainable supply chain practices including promoting the use of renewable electricity via Energize.

To assess supply chain risks, we use tools that improve the completeness and accuracy of our supplier data, while allowing us to gather information identifying potential associated risks. For new and existing suppliers, we leverage these tools to build new processes and procedures to continuously monitor key risk indicators, collect specific data and certifications to better understand ESG characteristics and performance, and leverage ESG characteristics to inform purchasing decisions.