A leading animal rights group has asked securities regulators to investigate Charles River Laboratories for allegedly misleading investors about its sales and purchases of long-tailed macaques, which are widely used in clinical research by pharmaceutical companies and universities, among others.
The company, one of the largest clinical research organizations, was accused of failing to disclose purchases of thousands of non-human primates that should not have been imported into the U.S. and obtaining some from companies identified as coconspirators in an international smuggling operation. And Charles River was also accused of falsely labeling the monkeys in sales made to its research clients.
“The importation and use of wild-caught long-tailed macaques is not only rife with legal consequences, but also anathema to scientific integrity,” the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote in a letter on Thursday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission urging the regulator to open an investigation into the company based on evidence provided.