WILMINGTON, N.C.—Pharmaceutical Product Development LLC (PPD) announced in June that it had been named best contract research organization (CRO) in the Triangle Business Journal’s 2016 Life Sciences Awards.
Calling itself “an innovation leader in clinical research,” PPD noted in a press release about the honor that it is committed to helping biopharmaceutical clients accelerate the development of life-changing medicines to improve health, and that it is among the largest life-science sector employers in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region, providing services that span clinical development. PPD’s Phase 1 through Phase 4 services are fully integrated with PPD Laboratories.
“This honor is a testament to the high caliber of PPD professionals and our culture of innovation, focusing on improving delivery of new therapies to patients by reducing the cost and time of drug development for our clients,” said William Sharbaugh, chief operating officer for PPD. “Our scientific, medical and operational experts are committed to delivering consistent quality and execution, exceptional customer-aligned service and constant innovation.”
The month before, the CRO announced that PPD researchers had earned the PharmaTimes International Clinical Team of the Year honor in a 2016 competition. The award, presented in London on May 12, was a culmination of a demanding series of challenges, including presentations before a panel of experienced industry judges.
The industry recognition demonstrates the high caliber of PPD’s clinical research associates and clinical team managers, and PPD’s award-winning training and development programs, such as the Virtual Clinical Foundations Program 2.0, which help to prepare research professionals for successful clinical trial monitoring and to deliver performance, quality and value to clients and their studies.
“PPD’s clinical researchers embody the utmost professionalism and competence to achieve this industry recognition,” said Roger Newbery, senior vice president of clinical management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for PPD. “We congratulate them on this achievement and recognize the talent, success and dedication our clinical researchers bring to all of our clients and their research programs.”
Finally, going back another month farther in time, April had brought with it a PPD announcement that Hacene Mekerri had joined the CRO to serve as vice president of its central laboratory organization.
“Hacene has a unique combination of data management and systems expertise, as well as extensive global central laboratory management experience, which make him ideally suited to lead our central laboratory organization,” said Dr. David Johnston, executive vice president of global laboratory services for PPD. “Hacene’s leadership will advance PPD’s integration of laboratory and clinical data to meet our customers’ research needs.”
PPD’s central laboratory operations are supported by a comprehensive set of data solutions in Preclarus, PPD’s award-winning clinical data platform. This capability enables study sites to access clean central lab data in real time, improve inventory management and order tracking, facilitate patient management and safety and establish complete chain of custody for samples.
Mekerri has more than 15 years of management experience in the drug development industry, including with laboratory companies, CROs and pharmaceutical companies. In his most recent posts, he served as managing director for the Asia Pacific region of a large CRO, as well as global director of data management and country head for a global central laboratory focused on late-stage clinical trials.
