Chinese CRO WuXi PharmaTech expanded its strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development(a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica) to provide preclinical services to Janssen and to eventually offer Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) toxicology services at WuXi’s facility in Suzhou, China.

Under the terms of the agreement, Janssen will provide training—reimbursed by WuXi—to help the CRO establish the GLP quality system and technical capabilities to begin supporting GLP toxicology studies later this year.

WuXi completed its 314,000-square-foot Suzhou laboratory at the end of 2009 and currently provides non-GLP toxicology services, as well as client-sponsored GLP validation studies.

"We are pleased to establish this new partnership with Janssen, which builds on our existing agreement to provide them with integrated pharmaceutical R&D services,” said WuXi chairman and CEO Dr. Ge Li in a statement. “We believe that China, with its high-quality scientific talent and favorable cost structure, is destined to become a major center for toxicology services over the next decade. We aim to become a leading provider of these services and to add toxicology to WuXi's broad, integrated platform of laboratory and preclinical services."