in march 2008, chang ao investment limited (bvi), a wholly-owned subsidiary of c&o, entered into a joint venture agreement with xenobiotic labs (“xbl”), a leading u.s. contract research services provider, to establish a research laboratory in nanjing that meets u.s. good practices for pharmaceutical laboratories research and a contract research organization (“cro”) in nanjing and shanghai specializing in a variety of preclinical and clinical support pharmaceutical and biotechnology research services, with operations expected to begin in 2009. chang ao investment limited has a 37.5% share in the joint venture.