Wilmington-based contract research organization PPD is observing its 25th anniversary.
During the quarter-century since its 1985 founding as a one-person consulting firm by Fred Eshelman, PPD has expanded its services, technologies and geographic reach through acquisitions and organic growth. It went public in early 1996.
Today, the firm employs more than 10,500 people -- some 2,000 of them in North Carolina. It has 85 offices, clinics and labs in 40 countries.
PPD delivers a full range of discovery, development and laboratory services to biopharmaceutical and medical device companies and academic and government organizations across the globe.