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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Pharmaceutical industry |
| Founded | 1968 as Environmental Sciences Corporation 1996 as Covance January 31, 2023; 3 years ago (2023-01-31) as Fortrea |
| Headquarters | Durham, North Carolina, U.S.; operations in over 90 countries |
Key people | |
| Services | Contract research organization |
| Revenue |
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| Total assets |
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| Total equity |
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Number of employees | Approximately 15,500 (2024) |
| Website | fortrea |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
Fortrea Holdings Inc. is an Americancontract research organization organized in Delaware and headquartered inDurham, North Carolina with operations in 90 countries. Its customers are primarily in thepharmaceutical,biotechnology, andmedical device industries.[1]
Its primary business is handling all aspects ofclinical trials including phase I through IV clinical trial management,clinical pharmacology, and post-approval services. It handlesregulatory affairs, protocol design, operational planning, study and site start-up, patient recruitment,project management, monitoring,data management andbiostatistics,pharmacovigilance, medical writing, and mobile clinical services. It focuses ononcology,central nervous system andneurodegenerative,rare diseases, and cell andgene therapies. In the five years ending in 2023, it conducted more than 5,850 clinical trials involving over 1 million subjects. It also conducted over 600 studies for medical device companies.[1]
The company is one of the largest participants in theinternational primate trade and has been criticized for itsanimal testing practices, most specificallyanimal testing on non-human primates.
The company traces its roots toEnvironmental Sciences Corporation, formed in 1968. It was known asHazleton from 1972 to 1990,Corning Lab Services from 1990 to 1996,Covance from 1996 to 2021, andLabcorp Drug Development from 2021 to 2023.
In 2025,Fortune 1000 listed Fortrea Holdings Inc. at No. 957 among the top 1,000 U.S. companies by revenue. Within the healthcare sector, the company ranked 76th among Fortune 1000 U.S. healthcare companies.[3][4]
In 1968, Environmental Sciences Corporation was established in Seattle, Washington, manufacturing equipment related to laboratory animals.[5] In 1972, it acquired and took the name of Hazleton Laboratories, a contract laboratory that conductedtoxicology testing.[5] In 1977,Corning Inc. purchased a stake in Hazleton and in 1987, it acquired the remainder of the company for $115 million.[5][6] By 1982, Hazleton was the largest independent biological testing company and life sciences laboratory in the U.S. and the largest laboratory equipment manufacturer worldwide.[5] The company carried out animal toxicology tests of drugs, cosmetics, pesticides, and industrial chemicals, and bredrhesus monkeys andbeagles for its own labs, as well as for chemical and drug companies, hospitals, universities and government agencies. It offered chemical analysis of new compound products for various industries, tested chemicals for gene mutations, and carried out research withmonoclonal antibodies.[5] It sold the equipment manufacturing unit in the mid-1980s.[5]
In 1989, Corning Glass Works acquired G.H. Besselaar Associates, which conducted clinical trials for drug approvals.[7] In 1990, Hazleton acquired Microtest, a molecular toxicology center in York, England.[5] Corning Glass Works changed its name to Corning, and folded Besselaar and Hazelton into a new subsidiary, Corning Lab Services. In 1991, Corning Lab Services acquired SciCor.[8]
In 1992, it acquired Philadelphia Association of Clinical Trials. In 1993, Hazleton, Besselaar, and SciCor were combined into Corning Pharmaceutical Services, then Corning Life Sciences.[5]
In 1995, Corning Pharmaceutical Services acquired National Packaging Systems, an Allentown, Pennsylvania-based clinical trial packaging company.[5]
In 1997, Corning completed thecorporate spin-off of its laboratory testing business asQuest Diagnostics and its pharmaceutical services business as Covance.[9][10]
In the fourth quarter of 1998, the company acquired GDXI, which undertakes the capture and interpretation ofelectrocardiograms, and Berkeley Antibody Company, which provides contract services in customantibody production, applied immunology, and customanimal testing to support the medical device industry and preclinical evaluations, for a total of $26 million in cash.[11]
In 2000, the company opened a central laboratory in Singapore, building on clinical-development services formed in Singapore in 1996.[12][13] In 2013, it expanded the capacity of the laboratory by 50%.[14][15][16]
In March 2001, the company sold Covance Pharmaceutical Packaging Services toFisher Scientific for $137.5 million.[17][18][19]
In August 2005, it acquired GFI Clinical Services, an 80-bed clinical pharmacology business, fromWest Pharmaceutical Services for $5.7 million.[20]
In April 2006, the company acquired eight early phase clinical pharmacology sites from Radiant Research for $65 million.[21][22][23]
In June 2006, it acquired Signet Laboratories, a provider of monoclonal antibodies used in the research of cancer, infectious disease, and neurodegenerative disease, for $8.95 million.[24]
In 2007, the company opened a laboratory in Shanghai, China.[25] In 2019, it opened a research and development center in Shanghai.[26]
In August 2008, the company acquired a campus inGreenfield, Indiana fromEli Lilly and Company and executed a 10-year service drug development service agreement with Lilly.[27][28]
In December 2008, the company acquired a minority equity stake in Caprion Proteomics, a provider of proteomics-based services to the pharmaceutical industry.[29][30] The company was acquired byChicago Growth Partners in July 2012.[31]
In 2009, the company acquired the Gene Expression Laboratory fromMerck & Co. and entered into a five-year, $145 million contract to provide Merck with genomic analysis services.[32][33][34]
In 2010, the company andSanofi-Aventis created an outsourcing partnership, which, at the time was considered the largest between acontract research organization and a pharmaceutical company. Covance also acquired sites from Sanofi-Aventis in Porcheville, France and Alnwick, United Kingdom.[35][36][37]
In 2014, the company acquired Medaxial, a London-based value communication consultancy.[38]
In February 2015,Labcorp acquired Covance for $6.1 billion in cash and stock.[39][40]
In 2016, the company entered into a strategic alliance with Global Specimen Solutions, in which the company offered GSS products GlobalCODE and snapTRACK to its clients.[41] In December 2017, Covance acquired the company.[42]
In September 2017, the company acquired Chiltern, a specialtycontract research organization, for $1.2 billion in cash.[43][44][45]
In June 2018, the company acquired Sciformix Corporation, a scientific process outsourcing company focused onpharmacovigilance and regulatory issues for biopharmaceutical and medical devices clients.[46][47][48]
In August 2018, Covance Food Solutions was sold toEurofins Scientific for $670 million.[49][50][51]
In June 2019, the company acquired the nonclinical contract research services business of Envigo (nowInotiv), which acquired the research products business of the company.[52][53]
In the first quarter of 2019, the company spent $47 million to acquire MI Bioresearch, a provider of preclinical capabilities in cell and gene therapy and oncology testing, and Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute (RCRI), a device-focusedcontract research organization.[54][55]
In October 2020, the company acquired GlobalCare, a mobile nursing and ambulant care company with operations in more than 65 countries, and snapIoT, a company that provides a digitized clinical platform that supports remote participation in clinical trials.[56]
In June 2021, the company changed its name to Labcorp Drug Development.[57]
In February 2023, the company was renamed Fortrea Holdings.[58] In July 2023,Labcorp completed thecorporate spin-off of the company.[59]
In June 2024, the company sold its Endpoint Clinical and Fortrea Patient Access businesses to Arsenal Capital Partners.[60]
In December 1989, severalcrab-eating macaques with theZaire ebolavirus were imported fromMindanao in the Philippines to the company's facility inReston, Virginia.[61][62] The strain of the virus became known as theReston virus. It was the first ebola virus that emerged outside of Africa and was also the first known natural infection of ebola virus in nonhuman primates.[63] The facility was abandoned and torn down and the variant turned out to be non-lethal to humans.[64] The incident was an inspiration forThe Hot Zone, a book byRichard Preston published in 1994.[65]
In March 1996, two macaques that had been shipped to the company's facility in Alice, Texas, tested positive for the Ebola virus from a group of 100 obtained from the same supplier. The virus strain was the same non-lethal Reston virus as in the earlier incident.[65]
In 2003, a German investigative journalist sponsored by theBritish Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) filmed 40 hours of undercover footage at the company's primate-testing facility inMünster.[66] Two films were produced, which were shown on German public television in December 2003. The footage showed animal keepers dancing with half-anaesthetized monkeys, making their heads move to the rhythm of the music.[66] It also showed rough treatment of the monkeys by the staff. The monkeys were seen living isolated in small wire cages with little or no natural light and no environmental enrichment, with high noise levels caused by staff shouting and playing the radio, and undergoing surgery with no post-operative care. In response, the company maintained that clips showing different technicians working in different buildings had been edited together, resulting in a sequence of events that did not take place. The company also said there was group housing and pair housing for some monkeys that was not shown. In the films, the treatment of the monkeys was criticized byJane Goodall. The environment minister for North Rhine-Westphalia asked the public prosecutor to investigate, and said that if the allegations were borne out, the company would lose its licence to keep primates.[66][67] The company gained an injunction against the video.[68]
From April 2004 to March 2005, an undercover technician, sponsored byPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), filmed the treatment of monkeys in the company's lab inVienna, Virginia. Incidents filmed included the punching of injured monkey, failure to give veterinary care and self-mutilation by monkeys because of "failure to provide psychological enrichment".[69] TheUnited States Department of Agriculture and theFood and Drug Administration investigated the claims and company agreed to a settlement of $8,720 and to fix the infractions.[70][71] In June 2005, the company filed a lawsuit in the United States against PETA and the investigator for fraud, breach of employee contract, and conspiracy.[72] PETA agreed to hand over all video footage and written notes to the company, and agreed to a ban on conducting any infiltration of the company for five years.[73] The company then dropped the lawsuit.[71] The company filed a parallel lawsuit in England in an attempt to stop PETA showing the tape; the British judge called the footage "highly disturbing", and ruled that there was a legitimate public interest in the material being shown. The case was settled with PETA allowed to continue to publish the video.[74]
In 2006,Paul McCartney protested a proposed $175 million animal testing laboratory by the company inChandler, Arizona.[75] However, the laboratory opened in 2009.[76]
In June 2011, a report showed that improper housing conditions led tofrostbite on the tails of many monkeys.[77]
In February 2012, the company was cited after a monkey died after being entangled by an enrichment device.[78]
In March 2012, the company was cited for housing a monkey in isolation for almost eight months.[79]
The company was fined $31,500 for four violations of theAnimal Welfare Act of 1966 after 13 cynomolgus monkeys died from hyperthermia in overheated rooms in September and October 2014. In July 2014, the company had transported monkeys to the facility without providing water or proper care and ignoring signs of weakness and distress. The company said it would add electronic temperature monitoring and alerts.[80]
In November 2023, the company was fined $9,000 due to the injuries of six monkeys between 2018 and 2022, mostly broken bones due to poor handling. After the injuries, four monkeys wereeuthanized.[81]
