The research collaboration aims to improve preclinical methods for evaluating the abuse potential of medicines, supporting safer drug development and more informed regulatory decisions.
Date: October 22, 2026
Organizations: Labcorp, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Charles River Laboratories
Research Area: Drug Safety / Regulatory Science
Key Highlights
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Research Collaboration: Labcorp, the FDA and Charles River Laboratories are working together to advance methods for evaluating the abuse potential of medicines.
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Standardized Assessment: The research will use harmonized behavioural economics methodologies to quantify and rank abuse potential.
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Complementary Expertise: Labcorp will contribute its experience conducting regulatory abuse potential studies, while FDA scientists will provide data analysis and regulatory science expertise.
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Improved Risk Assessment: The initiative aims to strengthen evidence used to assess how medicines may be misused outside controlled settings.
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Patient Safety: The findings could support drug development, regulatory review, medicine scheduling and labelling decisions.
About the Research
Assessing a medicine’s abuse potential is an important part of drug safety evaluation, particularly for medicines that may carry a risk of misuse or dependence.
The collaboration aims to improve the consistency and reliability of methods used to quantify abuse potential. By combining industry expertise with government regulatory science capabilities, the partners hope to generate evidence that better predicts real-world use patterns.
About Labcorp
Labcorp is a global laboratory services company providing diagnostic testing and drug development services. The company has supported abuse potential evaluation studies since 2009 and offers toxicology capabilities to help identify illicit substances and emerging synthetic drugs.
What’s Next?
The collaboration will advance research into more standardized approaches for evaluating abuse-related risks. The resulting evidence may help researchers and regulators make better-informed decisions throughout medicine development and regulatory review.
Source: Labcorp — October 22, 2026.
