Venturepharm Laboratories Becomes A Strategic Investor And Joint Venture Partner Of Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc.

Richmond, VA - Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc. ("CBI") is pleased to announce that Venturepharm Laboratories Ltd. ("VPL") has become a cornerstone investor through the purchase of 2.15M shares from PharmAust Ltd, which represents 39% of CBI's issued share capital. Concurrent with VPL's investment in CBI, the two companies have established a joint venture ("Venturepharm Asia") for CBI to leverage Venturepharm's extensive clinical research capabilities in China in order to provide a comprehensive suite of outsourcing services to the global pharmaceutical outsourcing industry.

The establishment of the Joint Venture ("JV") builds upon recent deals between eastern and western contract research organizations ("CRO") and will be Venturepharm's "shop front" to the world to access the global customer base for CRO services. CBI will provide early stage drug discovery technologies, business development, marketing and quality assurance services to the JV while VPL will provide contract manufacturing and clinical trial services.

Dr. Paul D'Sylva, CEO of CBI said "In establishing this partnership with VPL, CBI is taking account of China's growing importance in drug discovery and development. Venturepharm Asia brings together the best of what the west and the east can offer in the pharmaceutical outsourcing industry by providing fast, secure, high quality, and innovative services at globally competitive prices."

He added, "Of the estimated $34 billion in global life sciences outsourcing expenditure in 2005, 60% was spent on contract manufacturing, 33% on clinical research and 7% on custom chemical synthesis. The JV is of enormous strategic value to CBI because it builds upon our high quality custom synthesis products and services and enables us to expand our suite of services into the large and growing market segments of contract manufacturing and clinical trial management."

Dr. Bill Guo, Chairman and CEO of VPL said "Our investment in CBI and the establishment of Venturepharm Asia are the first steps in establishing a growth-oriented and highly profitable business relationship between VPL and CBI. Ultimately, this partnership enhances the product offering of both companies by providing customers with a fully-integrated suite of quality assured drug discovery, development and production services."

SOURCE: Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc.