PPD’s Susan Atkinson Recognized For Industry Leadership

WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) today announced that Susan Atkinson, Ph.D., senior vice president of global biometrics for PPD, has been named to the 2017 PharmaVOICE 100 list of the most inspiring people in the life sciences industry.

Established more than a dozen years ago by PharmaVOICE magazine, the PharmaVOICE 100 is an annual list of inspirational and innovative individuals recognized for their positive contributions to the life sciences industry.

“Being recognized alongside an impressive list of industry leaders is personally rewarding, yet also a reflection on the PPD culture of high standards and collaboration that drives us to fulfill our mission of helping clients deliver life-changing therapies,” Dr. Atkinson said. “Having watched this industry develop and grow, I believe this award focuses on the importance of our analytical work and the professionals I mentor.”

The honor recognizes Dr. Atkinson’s selflessness and her ability to motivate and grow leaders — traits and skills that reflect PPD’s defining principles and that have enabled her to positively impact the industry. A profile of Atkinson appears in the annual PharmaVOICE 100 issue.

“Dr. Atkinson is a world-class biostatistician who continues to innovate to make sure clinical trial protocols remain relevant and have the patient’s view front and center,” said Taren Grom, editor and co-founder of PharmaVOICE. “A natural puzzle-solver, Dr. Atkinson loves the challenge of analyzing a situation, considering options, and putting together new solutions. These are just a few of the reasons why she is recognized as one of the industry’s most inspiring leaders.”

Dr. Atkinson joined PPD in 1991 as a senior biostatistician and has risen through the ranks to her current leadership role, leading a team that provides data analytics, biostatistics, programming and data management operations, as well as the medical writing, interactive voice/web response and global clinical supplies teams for PPD’s clients. She has expertise in statistical analysis, clinical trial design, regulatory submission strategies and eClinical trial technologies.

Prior to joining PPD, Dr. Atkinson was an independent biostatistics consultant, and a research statistician in the biometric consulting laboratory of the department of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Atkinson earned a doctorate and master’s degree in biostatistics and a bachelor’s degree in public health (biostatistics) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Atkinson is currently involved in church and community activities focused on pregnancy care, adoption and foster care and currently sits on the board of directors for a local nonprofit. She has previously served as a member of the industry advisory board for the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium and on the board of directors for N.C. State University’s Foundation for the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

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.

Forward-looking Statement:
Any statements made in this news release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about PPD’s business leaders, 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: our ability to recruit, retain and motivate key personnel; the competitive nature of the drug development services industry; changes in trends in the biopharmaceutical industry; 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.

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