Preclinical contract research organization (CRO) Charles River Laboratories announced this morning plans to acquire Chinese CRO Wuxi PharmaTech in a deal valued at $1.6 billion.

The combined company will retain the Charles River name and continue to be led by Charles River president and CEO James Foster. WuXi CEO Dr. Ge Li will become corporate executive vice president and president of global discovery and China services, a new segment of the company. The acquisition will be finalized in the fourth quarter 2010.

Charles River also released its first quarter 2010 financial results this morning. Net sales for the quarter were $297.3 million, a decline of 1.4% from the same period last year. Net income for the quarter was $17.4 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, compared with net income of $25.4 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, for the first quarter 2009.

WuXi reported revenues of $270 million in 2009. 

Charles River is calling the WuXi deal a “transformational transaction,” which will enable the CRO to expand into China and expand its service offerings to include drug development services from molecule creation to first-in-human testing.