PPD, Inc has completed its acquisition of BioDuro LLC, a drug discovery outsourcing company focused on integrated drug discovery programmes and services.

With this acquisition, PPD now employs more than 1,400 in Asia Pacific and nearly 1,000 people in China, making it the largest contract research organization to offer clinical development and discovery services in the country.

"Our acquisition of BioDuro positions us to capitalize on the tremendous growth in Asia Pacific and to become the CRO of choice in China," said David Grange, chief executive officer of PPD. "BioDuro has a premier reputation for delivering quality service and has built an exceptional team of researchers and scientists. We are very pleased to welcome BioDuro's 660 employees into PPD."

Founded in 2005, BioDuro operates a state-of-the-art, 110,000-square-foot laboratory in Beijing. With the vast majority of its employees based in China, the company focuses on providing fully integrated programs to synthesize and optimize novel compounds to generate drug development candidates.

PPD paid approximately US$ 77 million in cash to acquire BioDuro.

As previously announced, PPD recently acquired Excel PharmaStudies, one of the largest contract research organizations in China, expanding PPD's phase II-IV clinical, data management, biostatistics, regulatory and quality assurance services in this rapidly growing market. PPD has offices throughout Asia Pacific in addition to global central lab facilities in China and Singapore.

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing discovery, development and post-approval services as well as compound partnering programmes.