Charles River Laboratories will acquire WuXi PharmaTech for approximately $1.6 billion. WuXi is a drug R&D outsourcing company with expertise in discovery chemistry, operating in China and the U.S. The combined company, to be called Charles River, will offer an expanded portfolio of products and services for early-stage drug development from chemistry to first in man, and is expected to close by the end of 2010. “This transaction revolutionizes the contract research landscape by creating ...