What's in a model?

Drug development relies heavily on animal models to validate targets, to anticipate the effect of a drug on a target of interest, and to assess potential side effects. Yet despite the fact that creating good models requires a great deal of expertise, the only company in this space that has grown to significant size is Charles River Laboratories Inc. - and CRL doesn't create its own models, but offers them through collaborations with small biotechs and research institutes.

Historically, the few companies in this space have tended to be small, service-oriented businesses with limited growth potential. The reasons are manifold: researchers have stuck to standard animal models that have well known characteristics and provide comparability; generating knockout mice requires licenses to key patents; and companies have faced considerable competition from non-profit research institutions that offer inexpensive animal models...