Investor Relations

WILMINGTON, Mass., Nov 8, 2001 (BW HealthWire) -- Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (CRL:NYSE) announced today that the lead investor group in its September 1999 management-led leveraged buy-out (LBO) transaction, Credit Suisse First Boston's DLJ Merchant Banking Group (DLJMB) group, has distributed to the limited partners in its LBO investment funds approximately 1.9 million shares of Charles River's common stock. This distribution amounts to 23% of the approximately 8.4 million shares of Charles River's common stock held by the DLJMB funds. Prior to the distribution, DLJMB funds held approximately 20% of Charles River's outstanding common stock.

Mr. James C. Foster, Chairman and CEO of the Company, commented: "We're pleased with DLJ Merchant Banking's decision to distribute a portion of their shares in Charles River to their fund investors. We've made a great deal of progress at Charles River over the past two years in transitioning from a highly leveraged private company to a strongly capitalized public company. Today's share distribution is consistent with our growth and progress as a company."

Charles River Laboratories, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is a leading provider of critical research tools and integrated support services that enable innovative and efficient drug discovery and development. The Company is the global leader in providing the animal research models required in research and development for new drugs, devices and therapies. The Company also offers a broad and growing portfolio of biomedical products and services that enable customers to reduce cost, increase speed, and enhance productivity and effectiveness in drug discovery and development. Charles River's customer base spans over 50 countries, and includes all of the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as many leading hospitals and academic institutions. The Company operates 76 facilities in 15 countries worldwide.

This document contains "forward looking statements." Such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by the forward looking statements, including acquisition integration risks, R&D risks, special interest groups, foreign exchange, contaminations, industry trends, new displacement technologies, outsourcing trends, USDA and FDA regulation, changes in law, continued availability of products and supplies, personnel and control, and others that are described in the Risk Factors contained in Company's Registration Statement of Form S-3, as filed on July 19, 2001, and as may be updated from time to time in the Company's periodic SEC filings. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update forward looking statements, and otherwise claims the "safe harbor" protections for forward looking statements afforded under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

CONTACT:          Charles River Associates
                  Investor Relations
                  Dennis R. Shaughnessy
                  Marcia Gookin
                  978-658-6000 ext. 1329
                  ir@criver.com
                  or
                  Media Relations
                  Christopher DiFrancesco
                  978-658-6000 ext. 1508
                  978-694-9504
                  cdifrancesco@criver.com

URL:              http://www.businesswire.com
Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet
with Hyperlinks to your home page.

Copyright (C) 2001 Business Wire.  All rights reserved.