PPD cutting 270 employees
Charlotte Business Journal
PPD Inc. plans to lay off 270 employees nationwide, citing lower-than-expected demand for its services.
The Wilmington-based contract research organization will limit the layoffs to its North American operations, which include about 3,400 employees in North Carolina. PPD has offices in 38 countries and about 10,500 professionals worldwide.
PPD (NASDAQ:PPDI) has a strong backlog of work throughout the world, company spokeswoman Louise Caudle says in a prepared statement. But business in North America has not picked up, she says.
Caudle says the reduction of 270 positions will bring the company’s North American work force in line with the demand for services in the region. She says the company holds more than $650 million in cash and cash equivalents and has no debt. She adds that PPD has enough resources to fund operations and future growth. No additional layoffs are planned.
The announcement comes just weeks after PPD backed away from its plans for an operation on the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis. The company terminated its lease for a new facility on the 350-acre campus, citing a construction delays and slow progress in recruiting tenants to the campus.
PPD announced plans in April 2008 to locate on the site. At the time, the company expected to eventually have as many as 300 employees at its Kannapolis facility.
PPD works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to assist them with getting drugs to market, from recruiting patients for clinical trials to submitting data to regulatory authorities.
The company also works with medical-device companies, academic institutions and government organizations.
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