ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services (RPS) has entered into an agreement to acquire Chinese contract research organization (CRO) Paramax International for $1 million in cash and 530,973 shares of RPS common stock.

The deal, expected to close in late May, will expand RPS’ capabilities in the Asian market by serving as the company’s Asian base of operations. Paramax is headquartered in Beijing, China, with an operations office in Shanghai.

“The acquisition of Paramax will be a key event in the expansion of our existing operations for providing globally integrated clinical research services. The capabilities that the management and staff of Paramax will bring to RPS are essential to meeting our objective of providing innovative, integrated, cost-effective drug development solutions in support of our customer’s product development portfolios,” said RPS CEO Dan Perlman in a company statement.

This latest acquisition is one of several global deals the CRO has made in the past few months. Late last year, RPS acquired three small European CROs.