PPD puts skin in the game with Celtic alliance

October 30, 2009 – 1:46 pm by Colette Pilkus

The typical CRO/sponsor relationship can be prone to delays as a result of the way trials are set up or misunderstandings between the parties. PPD is looking to avoid such delays by bringing products to market more quickly with its recent agreement to invest $100 million in Celtic Therapeutics Holdings LP to identify, acquire, and invest in a diversified portfolio of 10 to 15 novel therapeutic product candidates.

The alliance enables a close relationship between CRO and product developer, with the aim of producing better understood development goals, according to David Grange, CEO of PPD.

“The trust is so powerful,” Mr. Grange told R&D Directions. “They are allowing the CRO to not be micromanaged … We’re combining our global drug-development resources with the expertise that Celtic has with this diversified portfolio. Their ability to buy the best candidate compounds available gives us a better chance to get it on the market faster than normal.”

PPD plans to run the alliance with Celtic Therapeutics like all of their other programs, but because they have a portfolio of products that range from discovery to approval they can take it any where along the program, according to Mr. Grange. “We can shape the requirements pretty quickly especially with the close interaction we have with Celtic,” Mr. Grange says. “We’ve come up with a strategy that we think will work, that does it better, faster, and cost effective for Celtic to get to the endpoint together. Actually it’s a model we like even better because it’s beyond a preferred provider, beyond a strategic partner, it’s a strategic alliance because we have some skin in the game.”

Both organizations are committed to forging a new framework for timely, cost-efficient drug development. As a result, PPD believes these efficiencies will lead to higher quality data and overall markedly reduced timelines.

PPD believes that the Celtic Therapeutics team is capable of building one of the most hightly-valued late-stage portfolios in the biomedical industry. Celtic developed a product-focused model to address the challenges that pharmaceutical companies face in creating and expanding drug development pipelines.

“We’re excited about this model, it’s a full-service model, but it’s a full-service model plus, because we have investment involved, so we think it will be model that will be used again not only by us but by other companies going forward,” Mr. Grange says.

Tags: Celtic Therapeutics, CRO, PPD