Charles River and CHDI Extend Huntington’s Disease Drug Discovery Collaboration into 20th Year

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. and the CHDI Foundation, Inc. have extended their long-term drug discovery collaboration, which began in 2005, to continue advancing treatments for Huntington’s disease (HD). The renewed partnership, marking its 20th anniversary in 2025, enables enhanced integration of Charles River’s global scientific capabilities into CHDI’s programs, with more flexibility to support therapeutic development for this debilitating genetic neurological disorder.

“For two decades, we’ve been proud to be close partners of CHDI. They are doing incredible work, tirelessly exploring and progressing options for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. We are excited for the future of research and working collaboratively to bring therapeutics to the families impacted by this disease,” said Shannon M. Parisotto, Corporate Executive Vice President, Global Discovery & Safety Assessment, Charles River.

Under the extended agreement, Charles River will provide a broad range of services, including small molecule discovery, neuron-based screening assays, computational drug design, HTS, ADME/PK, safety pharmacology, biomarker assessment, and in vivo pharmacology using HD models. Over the years, their efforts have led to novel drug targets, validated animal models, and 15 composition of matter patent applications, significantly contributing to the global HD research landscape that now involves over 50 pharma and biotech companies.

“The Charles River team has become true scientific colleagues, and we highly value the intellectual and technical contributions that they have made across dozens of projects over the course of our two-decade collaboration. We look forward to further deepening our research collaboration to bring benefit to Huntington’s families as soon as we can,” said Robert Pacifici, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, CHDI. 

Notably, CHDI will share data with Charles River's AI-powered learning algorithms, further strengthening the industry's largest dataset for drug discovery. Charles River ensures secure and ethical data usage by excluding sensitive model data related to target identification or on-target activity, maintaining a responsible, privacy-forward approach to collaborative research data management.

“We have a wonderful global team of highly skilled and knowledgeable scientists who are closely integrated with CHDI’s team. We all recognize the critical need for effective treatments for HD and until that is a reality, we will continue pushing research forward,” said David Fischer, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, Discovery, Charles River.