WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPDI) today announced it has appointed Andreas Tschirky, Ph.D., as leader of BioDuro. In this role, Dr. Tschirky will have responsibility for providing scientific and operational leadership and managing the growth of the Beijing-based drug discovery services company PPD acquired last year.

“With more than 18 years of experience, Dr. Tschirky is extremely skilled at building and leading successful teams,” said Lee Babiss, Ph.D., executive vice president of global laboratory services. “He is frequently consulted by the Chinese government on new regulations to support development of China’s biopharmaceutical industry, and Dr. Tschirky’s expertise will be valuable as we continue to see strong demand for our discovery services.”

Dr. Tschirky spent the past 11 years with Roche, most recently serving as general manager of its Research and Development (R&D) Center in China. He was responsible for establishing and operating the center, which is recognized as the country’s first drug discovery center by a multinational pharmaceutical company. Dr. Tschirky also served as head of R&D of Roche in China and held leadership roles with Roche China, Roche Basel and other Roche research facilities.

Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Tschirky was assistant group leader of an interdisciplinary group of scientists at Paul-Scherrer Institute and later served as project leader for the establishment of the New Adler-Pharmacy at Buchs, St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Dr. Tschirky completed his pharmacy degree from the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland; his doctorate in pharmacy from the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Zurich; and his master of business administration from the China European International Business School in Shanghai.

PPD is a leading global contract research organization, celebrating 25 years of providing drug discovery, development and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 42 countries and more than 10,500 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 contained in this news release, including expectations and assumptions about the above named employee’s performance and contributions to PPD and its drug discovery business, 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. In addition, other important factors which could cause results to differ materially include the following: the ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel; competition within the outsourcing industry; rapid technological advances that make our products and services less competitive; success in sales growth; loss of large contracts; increased cancellation rates; economic conditions and outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government industry segments; risks associated with and dependence on collaborative relationships; risks associated with acquisitions and investments, such as impairments; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for PPD, copies of which are available free of charge upon request from the PPD investor relations department.