Covid-19 roundup: Charles Riv­er gets slammed by the pan­dem­ic; For­mer Sanofi R&D chief Elias Zer­houni heads a list of can­di­dates for Covid-19 drug czar; Feds try to sort out remde­sivir dis­tri­b­u­tion mess

Charles Riv­er Labs $CRL, the big CRO that spe­cial­izes in pre­clin­i­cal re­search pro­grams, cruised through Q1 with a boom­ing bio­phar­ma in­dus­try feed­ing its op­er­a­tions with a surg­ing rev­enue stream.

Then the pan­dem­ic hit, and now Charles Riv­er is tak­ing the hit in Q2.

In its quar­ter­ly call with an­a­lysts, the CRO said it ex­pects the pan­dem­ic to carve out up to $215 mil­lion from its pre-out­break 2020 fore­cast as aca­d­e­m­ic re­searchers sus­pend ac­tiv­i­ties and bio­phar­ma cuts back. To counter that, the com­pa­ny has adopt­ed a va­ri­ety of cost cut­ting mea­sures, from re­duc­ing staff hours, freez­ing new hir­ing plans, sus­pend­ing 401K con­tri­bu­tions and halt­ing mer­it pay hikes.

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