Wilmington-based contract research organization PPD has announced three major business moves:
- Buying Excel PharmaStudies, a large Chinese CRO
- Spinning off PPD's "compound partnering" pharmaceutical research and development business activity into a separate company
- Investing $100 million into Celtic Therapeutics Holdings L.P., a biotechnology investment partnership
PPD said it's buying Excel because it's the market leader and one of the largest contract research organizations in China, providing PPD additional capacity and expertise in this rapidly growing market. It also significantly increases its employee and client base in the Asia Pacific region.
The company also said that spinning off its compound partnering business from its core CRO, business will result in two well-capitalized, highly focused, independent public companies.
Two-year-old Celtic Therapeutics is a successor to Celtic Pharma Management. The group, headquartered in New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, buys clinical-stage therapies. PPD's investment is part of a $700 million Celtic fundraising project.