Worldwide Clinical Trials named Pete Duprat to head its growing early-phase business unit, which includes the CRO’s recently expanded Bioanalytical Center of Excellence in Austin, Texas.
Duprat joins North Carolina-based Worldwide from NuvoAir, where he was vice president of business development. Previous to NuvoAir, he held senior business development positions at Optum, PPD, ePharma Solutions and Quorum Review.
At Worldwide, Duprat will also be in charge of business development of the company’s Clinical Pharmacology Unit in San Antonio, Texas, as part of growing its early-phase business that provides first-in-human, clinical pharmacology and small and large molecular bioanalysis expertise, the company said in a Dec. 5 press release.
“Pete Duprat joins our Early Phase team at an exciting time of milestones and growth,” Mike Mencer, executive vice president and general manager of the early-phase business unit for Worldwide, said in the release. “Our recent investment in a state-of-the-art bioanalytical lab, as well as our expansion in the large molecule space, positions us to offer optimal services and benefits to our customers.”
In late August, the CRO unveiled a 15,000-square-foot expansion of its large-molecule laboratory in Austin that brought the facility—opened in June—to about 60,000 square feet. The company has said the expansion will help it meet a sample analysis scale of about 70,000 annually, which is forecast to grow to about 200,000 by 2024.
In addition to assay transfer and validation, Worldwide’s scientific team also develops assays for popular large-molecule drug modalities like monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics, antibody-drug conjugates and fusion proteins.