Feb 18 (Reuters) - Contract drug developer Charles River Laboratories CRL.N on Wednesday forecast annual profit above Wall Street estimates, betting on an improvement in demand for its drug discovery and development services from biotech clients.

The Wilmington, Massachusetts-based company expects adjusted profit for 2026 in the range of $10.70 to $11.20 per share, ahead at midpoint compared to analysts' average estimate of $10.88 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company has been seeing an increase in proposals from drugmakers and biotechs with cancellations declining. The canceled orders from clients were in response to the U.S. government's drug price negotiation program.

"Net bookings in the fourth quarter... demonstrates the stabilization of the biopharmaceutical demand environment," said CEO James Foster, adding that, "we are cautiously optimistic that positive demand trends will continue in 2026."

The company had announced last month that Foster would retire in May and handover charge to Chief Operating Officer Birgit Girshick.

Separately, on Wednesday it also announced Glenn Coleman as finance chief, succeeding interim CFO Michael Knell, and said Kerry Dailey will fill the newly-created position of chief legal officer.

Charles River's fourth-quarter revenue came in at $994.2 million, surpassing analysts' average estimates of $987 million.

However, the company said its quarterly revenue was hurt by lower sales volume for drug discovery services, and for regulated safety assessment services compared to a year ago.

The company expects its 2026 revenue growth to be at least flat to a rise of 1.5%.

Charles River posted quarterly adjusted profit per share of $2.39, compared with analysts' average estimate of $2.34.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

((Puyaan.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))