US-based contract research organisation (CRO) PPD has been selected as a full-service preferred provider for translational clinical development services by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
PPD will share its expertise with academic investigators conducting JDRF-funded early-phase clinical trials for type 1 diabetes and its complications. It will help JDRF to review clinical development proposals, collaborate with JDRF-funded investigators to optimise clinical trial designs and assist in executing components for some of those trials.
The CRO has “significant diabetes capabilities and a track record of success in moving products through early clinical development while reducing development timelines”, it said. Under the agreement with JDRF, Dr Lisa Hornick, executive medical director at PPD, and Dr Randy Anderson, vice-president of development, will focus on medical and scientific activities for the Foundation while Karla Jacobus, PPD’s director of product development, will be responsible for logistics.
JDRF is the world’s largest charitable funder of research into type 1 diabetes, PPD noted. Last year the Foundation provided over 1,000 grants in 22 countries, at a total cost of more than US$156 million.
