PPD Expanding Clinical Development and Lab Capabilities in China

PPD, Inc. (PPD) has expanded its operations and leadership team in China to provide enhanced clinical development, laboratory, regulatory, site conduct, patient access and post-approval services for international and China-based biopharmaceutical companies.

PPD’s expansion includes enlarging its clinical development offices in Beijing and Shanghai and opening new offices in Guangzhou and Shenyang. In 2020, PPD Laboratories plans to open a multifunctional lab in China offering bioanalytical, biomarker and vaccine sciences services. In addition, the company’s Accelerated Enrollment Solutions (AES) business‚-which offers distinctive site conduct and patient access solutions-added China to its global footprint for delivery of performance-based enrollment solutions for chronic ambulatory trials, leveraging its partnership with more than 300 hospitals in China.

PPD’s growing operations in China are being led by a new in-country leadership team with extensive experience across the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

“Recent regulatory changes streamlining the drug development approval process in China have positioned the country as a key location for conducting clinical trials for many global studies,” said David Johnston, PhD, executive vice president, global clinical development at PPD. “Our expanded operations in China enhance our ability to provide multinational pharmaceutical companies with expanded access to the country’s evolving drug development and post-marketing ecosystem and to support Chinese biotechnology companies conducting trials in the global market.”

To oversee the expansion in China, PPD named Ding Ming, PhD, as vice president and general manager of the company’s China operations, bringing more than 20 years of industry experience. Dr. Ming provides leadership for the spectrum of PPD services within China, including global clinical development, PPD Laboratories, AES, Evidera-PPD's peri- and post-approval business-and China-based commercial and functional support teams.

Di Cindy Wu has been named executive director of PPD Laboratories to provide direct oversight of the company’s lab operations in China and Singapore, maintain global consistency and continuity across the company’s lab operations, and ensure high-quality data for trials. Wu has 18 years of contract research organization experience.

“The new laboratory we plan to open in China this year will significantly enhance our capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, where we already have central labs in Shanghai and Singapore,” said Christopher Fikry, M.D., executive vice president of PPD Laboratories. 

PPD renovated and significantly enlarged the size of its clinical development operations in Beijing and Shanghai, and opened new offices in Guangzhou and Shenyang last year to support the increased number of ongoing clinical trials and help develop optimized regulatory and access strategies. In August 2019, PPD launched a pharmacovigilance hub in Shenyang to provide centralized services, such as full lifecycle safety monitoring capabilities and extensive expertise in China’s regulatory environment, to support growing clinical research needs in the country.

PPD’s regulatory affairs team is experienced with the continuing regulatory reforms in China and has a strong track record in helping customers achieve success in the country. The company’s established foundation of full-service support in conducting trials in China for more than 20 years positions PPD to facilitate efficient and robust generation of the evidence of value, safety and effectiveness needed to obtain approval and access in the Chinese market. PPD contributed to more than 25 regulatory approvals in China last year.