PPD was founded by Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D., as a one-person consulting firm in 1985. The following year, he expanded the company's scope to include development services and relocated operations from Maryland to North Carolina. • July 1985: Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D., founds PPD as a one-person consulting firm based in his home in Maryland. • 1986: Eshelman expands the company and relocates operations to
Wilmington, North Carolina. • January 1989: The company incorporates in
North Carolina. • January 1996: PPD issues its initial public stock offering and begins trading on the
Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol PPDI. • October 2005: PPD's board of directors adopts an annual cash dividend policy. • July 2009: The company promotes Eshelman to executive chairman and names David Grange chief executive officer. • January 2010: The company commemorates the 25th anniversary of its founding. • June 2010: PPD spins off its compound partnering division as a new and independent publicly traded company, Furiex Pharmaceuticals. • May 2011: David Grange retires as chief executive officer of PPD. • September 2011: PPD's board of directors names Raymond Hill as PPD's new chief executive officer. • December 2011: The company is acquired by affiliates of
The Carlyle Group and affiliates of
Hellman & Friedman in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion. • May 2012: PPD's board of directors names David Simmons as chairman and CEO. • August 2013: PPD acquires Acurian. • December 2014: PPD announces an agreement with SNBL to form a joint venture to provide full range of clinical development services in Japan. • May 2015: PPD expands network of U.S.-based research sites via strategic relationship with Radiant. • June 2016: PPD expands network of global research sites via strategic relationship with Synexus. • September 2016: PPD acquires Evidera. • April 2017:
Hellman & Friedman and affiliates of
The Carlyle Group enter into definitive agreements to recapitalize PPD and expand the company's ownership to include two new investors, a subsidiary of the
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and an affiliate of
GIC Private Limited, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. • July 2018: PPD launches new site solution. • July 2018: Synexus announces U.S.-based registry to power major longitudinal study on brain aging. • February 2019: PPD inks deal with China's HLT to create data science-driven research solutions. • May 2019: PPD's Evidera acquires RWE provider
Medimix. • September 2019: PPD's Accelerated Enrollment Solutions acquires global site business from Bioclinica. • February 2020: PPD issues its initial public stock offering and begins trading on the
Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol PPD. • April 2021:
Thermo Fisher Scientific announces plans to acquire PPD for $17.4 billion. • December 2021: Thermo Fisher Scientific completes the acquisition of PPD. ==Location==