Strengthens BioDuro's scientific expertise across range of therapeutic areas
WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPDI) today announced it has appointed Jasmine (Jisong) Cui, Ph.D., as chief scientific officer of BioDuro, A PPD® Company. Dr. Cui will provide scientific leadership to BioDuro's integrated drug discovery services across a range of disease areas and expand its use of novel technologies for small and large molecules and in stem cells and imaging.
"With more than 15 years of drug discovery experience, Jasmine's leadership will be valuable to our clients as we continue to build therapeutic expertise and to deliver integrated services beginning at lead generation through Phase 0," said Andreas Tschirky, Ph.D., leader of BioDuro. "Her proven expertise in the pharmaceutical industry will help us deliver innovation in areas such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, discovery biology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), and I am pleased to welcome her to our company."
Dr. Cui previously served as vice president and head of drug discovery and translation for a newly established biotech company where she provided leadership for project portfolio and operations from preclinical to Phase II clinical studies. Prior to that role, she spent 14 years at Merck Research Laboratories where she held positions of increasing responsibility. As director of cardiovascular diseases, she provided project leadership for delivering several preclinical drug candidates, a few of which are currently in clinical studies. Dr. Cui chaired the early development team for compounds in the clinic and also served as head of the hypertension exploratory biomarker group for identifying and developing preclinical and translatable biomarkers in cardiovascular diseases.
During the past 10 years, Dr. Cui has actively promoted scientific and business exchange between the United States and China in the health care industry. She is past president of the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SAPA), a leading Chinese-American pharmaceutical organization, and was the first female president in the organization's 18-year history.
Dr. Cui received her Ph.D. in biology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. She completed her undergraduate studies at Shandong University in China.
BioDuro, acquired by PPD in 2009, is a leading drug discovery services company. It provides high-quality, integrated preclinical research and development services to biopharmaceutical clients, ranging from medicinal chemistry, discovery biology, pharmacology, DMPK and biologics.
PPD employs more than 1,400 in Asia Pacific and nearly 1,000 people in China, where it is one of the largest contract research organizations in that country.
PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing drug discovery, development and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 44 countries and more than 11,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a commitment to quality to help clients and partners accelerate the delivery of safe and effective therapeutics and maximize the returns on their R&D investments. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions, including statements, expectations and assumptions about the above named employee's performance and contributions to PPD and its drug discovery business, contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Although PPD attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based and could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Other important factors which could cause future results to differ materially include the following: the ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel, including Dr. Cui and a new CEO; competition in the outsourcing industry; overall global economic conditions; economic conditions and outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and government-sponsored research sectors; consolidation in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; PPD's ability to win new business; loss, delay or modification of large contracts; higher-than-expected cancellation rates; the rate of conversion of backlog into revenue; actual operating performance; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; risks associated with and dependence on strategic relationships; risks associated with acquisitions and investments, such as impairments and integration; rapid technological advances that make our services less competitive; risks associated with fixed price contracts and cost overruns; compliance with drug development regulations; changes in the regulation of the drug development process; and the ability to control SG&A spending. These and other PPD risk factors are set forth in more detail from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge upon request from PPD's investor relations department. PPD assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update these forward-looking statements in the future, except as required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing PPD's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.
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