PPD Launches New Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence
Significantly expands vaccine testing services PPD acquired from Merck in 2009
WILMINGTON, N.C. (March 23, 2010) - PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPDI) today announced it is launching the PPD Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence, a first-in-kind comprehensive network of integrated, world-class laboratory services focused specifically on vaccine and biologic drug development. The center augments the company's scientific and biologics drug development expertise with state-of-the-art facilities, processes and instrumentation to help clients realize the highest scientific standards for their programs with a focus on cost efficiencies.
Bringing together more than 20 years of PPD laboratory expertise, the center will offer comprehensive laboratory services to support development of products such as vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, peptides, protein-drug conjugates and other biologics. The integration of vaccine testing, bioanalytical, cGMP and global central lab services will offer biopharmaceutical companies the opportunity to streamline and customize laboratory services for their biologics portfolios. The Center of Excellence strengthens PPD's position as the industry leader in providing testing services for vaccines and other biologics, two of the fastest-growing segments in the biopharmaceutical industry today.
"With the industry's largest collection of commercial vaccine assays and strong immunochemistry, cell culture and cGMP lab operations, PPD is the first CRO to offer the type of laboratory support that has the potential to bring significant efficiencies to the development of vaccines and biologics," said Christine Dingivan, M.D., chief medical officer, PPD. "The Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence provides the high quality scientific support our clients are seeking in a way that allows them to bypass costly capital and resource investments necessary to develop and maintain these capabilities internally."
PPD has developed new technologies and assays to expand its vaccine testing services into the area of oncology vaccines in addition to now having the unique capability to provide comprehensive concurrent use testing for investigational pediatric and adolescent vaccine programs. Concurrent usetesting testing of new vaccines is a regulatory requirement intended to ensure that vaccines under development do not interfere with the efficacy of marketed vaccines co-administered to the same patient population.
The center will also allow PPD to bring its clinical trials expertise across multiple areas, the most significant being data management. For example, PPD can address data integration challenges by providing a consistent sample management and data integration interface among the clinical database, central lab and vaccine lab environments.
The biologics and vaccines markets are among the fastest growing segments in the biopharmaceutical industry. According to EvaluatePharma, the compounded annual growth rate of biologics is expected to be 8.5 percent from 2008-2014, eight to 10 times greater than the growth rate of small molecules.
PPD's Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence builds upon the strategic collaboration PPD established with Merck involving vaccine testing and assay development.
PPD is a leading global contract research organization, celebrating 25 years of providing drug discovery, development and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 41 countries and more than 10,500 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a commitment to quality to help clients and partners accelerate the delivery of safe and effective therapeutics and maximize the returns on their R&D investments. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com or http://biologics.ppdi.com.
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this news release, including expectations and assumptions about the launch of the Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence and its value to PPD, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Although PPD attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors which could cause results to differ materially include the following: rapid technological advances that make our products and services less competitive; success in sales growth; loss of large contracts; increased cancellation rates; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; economic conditions and outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government industry segments; competition within the outsourcing industry; risks associated with and dependence on collaborative relationships; risks associated with the development and commercialization of drugs, including earnings dilution and obtaining regulatory approval; risks associated with acquisitions and investments, such as impairments; risks that we may not continue our dividend policy; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for PPD, copies of which are available free of charge upon request from the PPD investor relations department.
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Sue Ann Pentecost
Corporate Communications Manager
Corporate Communications
Morrisville, NC
PPD
3900 Paramount Parkway
Morrisville, N.C. 27560
Phone+1 919 456 5890
[email protected]
Web sitewww.ppdi.com
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