PPD Heroes Advocate For Clinical Research To Improve Patient Health

WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) today announced the kickoff of its 2017 educational campaign to raise awareness about the life-changing impact of clinical research, featuring a team of PPD Heroes who share their personal stories to inspire hope.

“The more than 19,000 professionals of PPD find inspiration in the PPD Heroes’ stories as we pursue our mission of delivering life-changing therapies in close collaboration with our clients. We hope the PPD Heroes will inspire countless people to get involved and support clinical research.”

PPD Heroes are extraordinary people who have overcome illness with medical treatments developed through clinical research. They help raise awareness about the importance of increasing participation in clinical trials by both patients and physicians alike to advance the development of next-generation therapies.

The PPD Heroes will share their motivating stories at a number of events this year to support organizations that, like PPD, are committed to improving health and saving lives. This spring, the PPD Heroes and a large contingent of PPD employees will participate in two North Carolina events: the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of New Hanover County in Wilmington on April 28 and 29, and the Susan G. Komen Triangle Race for the Cure in RTP on May 6.

“PPD Heroes remind us of the remarkable progress we’ve made in developing treatments for many diseases and health conditions, yet there is much still to accomplish,” said Ed Murray, executive vice president and chief human resources officer of PPD. “The more than 19,000 professionals of PPD find inspiration in the PPD Heroes’ stories as we pursue our mission of delivering life-changing therapies in close collaboration with our clients. We hope the PPD Heroes will inspire countless people to get involved and support clinical research.”

Introducing our PPD Heroes:

• Teresa Dunlap, an executive director of project management for PPD, who has worked for more than 20 years on clinical trials. In 2012, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. Now at five years following treatment, she is well past the three-year mark post-treatment, beyond the danger zone for a recurrence.
• Angela Esquivel, a PPD senior manager focused on patient safety, who was diagnosed with ductile carcinoma in situ at the age of 30. She has no family history of breast cancer. As a 15-year cancer survivor and PPD employee, she frequently works on breast cancer clinical trials, which she specifically seeks out because her personal experience enables her to closely relate to the patients. She is a passionate advocate of cancer education.
• Denise Fowler, a senior director in oncology at PPD, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2000, despite having no family history of the disease. Following surgery and chemotherapy, she has been cancer-free for more than 15 years. As a survivor, she devotes much of her energy and attention to helping increase awareness of ovarian cancer and the value of clinical research.
• Kirk Smith, owner of a graphic design and web firm in Athens, Georgia, who, though a nonsmoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. His diagnosis was stage IIIb lung cancer with an ALK+ mutation, an extremely rare genetic mutation that has a five-year survival rate of just 5 percent. He credits clinical research for the development of innovative new treatments that have been effective for him and allowed him to continue his demanding routines as a competitive runner.
• Wendy Chioji, who was diagnosed with – and beat – stage II breast cancer in 2001. More recently, she has participated in three trials in her latest battle against recurrent thymic carcinoma, an extremely rare, fast-growing cancer of the thymus gland. The third trial, which she started 14 months ago, has proven to be very encouraging for her treatment.

Now in its eighth year, the PPD Heroes campaign is part of PPD’s ongoing efforts to help increase understanding of the importance of participation in clinical trials, with a clear focus on patients, physicians and patient-focused organizations.

About PPD

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 47 countries and more than 19,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help clients and partners bend the cost and time curve of drug development to deliver life-changing therapies that improve health. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

Any statements made in this news release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about the PPD Heroes campaign, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements often include words such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “suggests,” “plan,” “believe,” “intend,” “estimates,” “targets,” “projects,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “forecast” and other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are subject to and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Although PPD believes these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions at the time they are made, many factors are beyond PPD’s ability to control or predict and could affect the outcome of the subject matter of this news release and our actual financial results, and therefore the outcome and results might differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Additional factors that might materially affect the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: the competitive nature of the drug development services industry; changes in trends in the biopharmaceutical industry; our ability to recruit, retain and motivate key personnel; rapid technological changes that make our services less competitive or obsolete; the impacts of political, economic and/or regulatory changes on the health care industry; the fact that our backlog may not accurately predict or convert into service revenue; the termination, delay or change in scope of our contracts; industry, customer or therapeutic concentration; the pricing of and cost management of customer contracts; information and communication systems failures; contractual failures; regulatory and ethical standards failures; our ability to attract investigators and enroll patients in clinical trials; violations of laws governing privacy, conduct of clinical trials and/or other pharmaceutical research; competition between existing and potential customers; management of business restructurings and acquisitions; risk relating to the performance of drug development services and our insurance coverages, if any, for such risks; U.S. or international economic, currency, political and other risks; changes in existing or interpretations of tax laws; factors impacting the value of our goodwill and intangible assets; and other factors.

PPD assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or make any new forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. PPD is not responsible for updating the information contained in this news release beyond the published date, or for changes made to this news release by wire services or internet service providers or any other party.