Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL)

Company Overview

SNBL was founded in September 1957 in Kagoshima, Japan as Minami Nippon Dog Center — a dog center with an animal hospital. By 1960 it began contract safety testing, becoming Japan's first nonclinical safety CRO. The company rebranded to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories in 1974 and expanded its Kagoshima nonclinical base in 1980.

Publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime market (migrated 2022), SNBL is tightly controlled: Nagata and Company Co., Ltd. holds approximately 40.32% of shares as of September 2025. FY3/25 consolidated revenue was ¥32.4 billion (~$215M USD), with 1,436 employees (3,001 including equity-method affiliates).

U.S. Operations: Everett, Washington

SNBL's U.S. footprint started with a Maryland business development outpost (1988), followed by the formation of SNBL U.S.A., Ltd. (1991) and a purpose-built nonclinical facility at 6605 Merrill Creek Parkway, Everett, WA (1999). At peak capacity, the campus housed nearly 4,000 NHPs, “hundreds of rabbits and dogs,” and thousands of rodents per local reporting. Species confirmed in USDA records include dogs (beagles), cynomolgus macaques, rhesus macaques, pig-tailed macaques, guinea pigs, rabbits, and swine.

USDA records identify SNBL USA as holding both AWA dealer license 91-B-0078 and research registration 91-R-0053 (Customer ID 11124).

Beagle & Canine Operations

Beagle use is confirmed through USDA inspection records at the Everett facility and published scientific literature from SNBL's Kagoshima headquarters. SNBL functions as both a beagle testing CRO and a commercial beagle supplier.

USDA-Documented Canine Presence (Everett)

Published Beagle Studies (Kagoshima)

• •Single-dose and 52-week oral toxicity studies of lactitol in “male beagle dogs” — SNBL Kagoshima affiliation (PubMed indexed)
• •Six-month repeated oral-dose dog toxicity study with SNBL Kagoshima affiliation (PubMed indexed)
• •2017 PLOS One nerve regeneration paper reports male beagles “purchased from SNBL, Ltd. (Kagoshima, Japan)” — confirming SNBL's dual role as both commercial beagle supplier and testing CRO

Beagle-Specific USDA Citation

Investigations & USDA Violations

2016 Settlement (Docket 16-0187)

The USDA administrative complaint alleged willful AWA violations spanning December 2011 through May 2016, including: 25 long-tailed macaques that died or were euthanized after severe dehydration during Cambodia-to-U.S. transport; pig-tailed macaque deaths from hyperthermia during net-capture; a cynomolgus macaque that suffocated with its head stuck in a procedure cage; six macaque deaths from botched liver biopsies; and an infant NHP that died after escaping through an enclosure gap.

Prior Penalties

• •2006: $31,852 stipulated penalty (reported by AWI; underlying document not located)
• •2008: $12,937 civil penalty resolved by stipulation
• •2009: $1,406 civil penalty resolved by stipulation

Selected Inspection Citations

Primate Supply Chain & Cambodia Risk

SNBL's primate breeding footprint spans three countries per its corporate history: Indonesia (1986), China (1989, Guangdong 2003), and Cambodia (2007 via Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (Cambodia) Ltd., based in Phnom Penh).

USDA enforcement documents confirm that SNBL USA imported Cambodia-origin macaques during at least the 2010–2016 period. The USDA complaint describes a shipment of 480 long-tailed macaques transferred to Everett, with multiple deaths shortly after arrival. The DOJ's “Operation Long-Tailed Liberation” investigation charged Cambodian officials and Vanny Bio Research employees with primate smuggling under falsified CITES documentation — but SNBL was not named as a defendant or co-conspirator in DOJ releases.

Key People

Note: SNBL's English-language officer pages were intermittently access-restricted during research (anti-bot/403 behavior), limiting cross-checking of additional board members against public sources.

Japan–U.S. Regulatory Bridge

SNBL facilitates cross-border drug development through corporate presence in both countries (including the PPD-SNBL clinical joint venture), the SNBL Global Gateway innovation hub in Everett, and reliance on the OECD Mutual Acceptance of Data system — which allows GLP datasets generated in one participating country to be accepted by regulators in 40+ others.

Timeline

Sources