Covance
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| Subsidiary of LabCorp | |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1968 as Environmental Sciences Corporation; 1996 as Covance |
| Headquarters | Princeton, New Jersey, United States; facilities in 60+ countries |
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Key people
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| Services |
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| Revenue |
 US$2.595 billion (2013) |
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US$179.2 million (2013) |
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Number of employees
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12,500+ (2013) |
| Website | www.covance.com |
Covance Inc. with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is a contract research organization (CRO) providing drug development and animal testing services. According to its website, it is one of the largest companies of its kind in the world, with annual revenues of over $2 billion, and over 15,000 employees in more than 60 countries. It claims to provide the world's largest central laboratory network. It became a publicly traded company after being spun off by Corning Incorporated in 1996. In 2011 it was listed as one of the top 100 employers by the Diversity Employers Magazine.
Under the name Covance Research Products Inc., based in Denver, Pennsylvania, the company also deals in the import, breeding and sale of laboratory animals. It breeds dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, non-human primates, and pigs, and runs the largest non-human primate laboratory in Germany. The company became the subject of controversy following allegations in 2003–2005 by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that non-human primates were being abused in its laboratories in Germany and the United States. No violations of the law were found by the authorities in the first case, and a small fine was levied in the second. In response, the company drew up a new welfare code to guide its treatment of laboratory animals.
On November 3rd, 2014, Labcorp announced it would be purchasing Covance for $6.1 billion.
Covance's origins go back to 1968, when Environmental Sciences Corporation – which manufactured equipment related to laboratory animals – opened for business in the basement of a former grocery store in Seattle, Washington. In 1972 it purchased and took the name of Hazleton Laboratories, a contract laboratory that conducted toxicology testing. In 1977 Corning Glass Works purchased a stake in Hazleton. According to material on the Funding Universe website, by 1982 Hazleton had become the largest independent biological testing company and life sciences laboratory in the United States, as well as the largest manufacturer of laboratory equipment in the world. The company carried out toxicology tests on animals of drugs, cosmetics, pesticides, and industrial chemicals, and bred rhesus monkeys and beagles for its own labs, as well as for chemical and drug companies, hospitals, universities and government agencies. Funding Universe writes that it also offered chemical analysis of new compound products for various industries, tested chemicals for gene mutations, and carried out research with monoclonal antibodies.
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