Aug 7 (Reuters) - Charles River Laboratories ( CRL )

trimmed its annual forecast on Thursday, as it no longer expects

demand for its drug discovery and development services to

improve in the second half of the year, sending its shares down

15% in premarket trading.

The contract research firm also said its board has approved

a new stock repurchase plan of $1 billion, replacing a prior

plan of $1.3 billion that had $129.1 million remaining on it

when terminated.

Charles River and its peers have been grappling with

weakening demand for their services due to a funding crunch

throughout the previous year among their biotech clients amid a

high-interest-rate environment.

James C. Foster, CEO of Charles River said "...trends

suggest that demand will not improve during the second half of

the year as we had previously anticipated, and in fact, will

decline for global biopharmaceutical clients."

Some analysts had previously predicted the funding for

biotechs could stabilize this year after a strong 2023 for

regulatory approvals in the U.S.

The Massachusetts-based company is also implementing

restructuring initiatives from which $100 million will be

realized this year.

Charles River expects its annual adjusted profit to be

between $9.90 and $10.20 per share, compared with its prior

expectations of $10.90 to $11.40 per share.

Analysts on average estimate profit for the period at $10.99

per share, according to LSEG data.

The company also expects full-year revenue to decrease by

2.5% to 4.5%, versus its previous forecast of an increase of 1%

to 4%.

Charles River's revenue fell 3.1% to $1.03 billion for the

second quarter but beat Wall Street estimates of $1.02 billion.

On an adjusted basis, the company posted a profit of $2.80

versus estimates of $2.39.