What is a Contract Vivarium?
Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, continue to lead globally in biotech innovation, attracting prominent researchers and companies from around the world. The city's thriving ecosystem, powered by renowned academic institutions and immersive biotech infrastructure, fosters an atmosphere conducive to groundbreaking discoveries.
Amidst this steady growth, contract vivarium organizations (CVOs) are emerging as one of the industry's most innovative models in enabling preclinical research. They offer biosciences companies of all sizes access to turnkey vivarium rental research space and supporting services for preclinical in vivo drug development studies.
Mispro stands as Metro-Boston's leading CVO, with five facilities in the area, which are in addition to the company’s national network of contract vivarium lab facilities located in bio-destinations such as New York City, Raleigh/Durham (RTP), South San Francisco/Palo Alto, and Philadelphia. Mispro’s multiple locations underscore a key element of the CV model: accessibility to, and proximity from, client companies' lab and office space.
Let’s take a look at why CVs are a smart choice for small-to-mid-sized biotech and biopharma companies and how Mispro’s location strategy in Boston works to both support and drive the market.
The Role of a Contract Vivarium in Preclinical Research
Preclinical research is a critical stage in the drug development process, where potential therapies undergo rigorous testing for safety and efficacy before advancing to clinical trials. Contract vivarium organizations, like Mispro, play a pivotal role by providing companies access to state-of-the-art laboratory animal facilities and supporting services for animal research, including animal husbandry, veterinary oversight, and a regulatory compliance oversight committee (IACUC) that approves study protocols and offers guidance to founding scientists and principal investigators (PIs) in ethical research practices and good science.
Mispro’s highly specialized lab facilities and vivarium services allow researchers to conduct their experiments with the highest level of confidence and control, yielding valid data on drug interactions, toxicity profiles, and disease models that have a high likelihood of reproducibility in later-stage trials.
Pioneering Contract Vivarium Solutions
With the demand for vivarium services continuing to surge in the Boston/Cambridge area, Mispro, a pioneer of the contract vivarium model, is taking a proactive approach to meet the industry's needs. It strategically places its turnkey vivarium rental lab facilities to be easily accessible within the region's rapidly expanding micro clusters, including Kendall Square, Alewife, Seaport, Waltham, and its newest Cambridge location on Memorial Drive, set to open in November of 2023.
Mispro’s highly specialized lab facilities and vivarium services allow researchers to conduct their experiments with the highest level of confidence and control, yielding valid data on drug interactions, toxicity profiles, and disease models that have a high likelihood of reproducibility in later-stage trials.
Advantages of a Mispro Contract Vivarium
The contract vivarium option is rapidly emerging in Boston’s thriving biotech landscape as a smart and effective choice for companies who want to have control of their preclinical animal studies. Mispro’s expansion to a third location in Cambridge is driven by the rising demand for the CV model in the world’s leading biotech hub, as well as reflects Mispro’s proximity-driven strategy for its locations to be within minutes of client labs, the numerous biotech incubators in the area, and nearby academic institutions such as MIT, Harvard, and Tufts which serve as a breeding ground for biotech innovators.
