The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has hired PPD to provide a transplantation statistical and clinical center for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Under the contract PPD – Thermo Fisher Scientific’s clinical trial business – will offer a broad range of support services critical to the design, development, execution and analysis of transplantation clinical trials and research.
The NIAID project will be funded in whole with federal funds from NIAID, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services under cooperative agreement U01AI178756.
David Johnston, senior vice president and president, clinical research, Thermo Fisher Scientific, predicted that the partnership would help advance trials.
“The scope of clinical research supported by our transplantation center enables us to help advance NIAID-sponsored transplantation studies, the results of which are essential to minimizing or, more hopefully, removing barriers to the success of transplantation procedures and the complications of long-term immune suppression.
“We welcome the opportunity to help design and implement effective and efficient clinical trials to move the science of transplantation forward,” Johnston added.
PPD claims that over the past five years, it has conducted nearly 150 studies in transplantation and related indications, involving more than 7,000 patients at more than 2,200 research sites around the world.
And, in June, Thermo Fisher expanded its transplant diagnostics capabilities by opening its One Lambda Laboratories. The CLIA-licensed lab provides a suite of non-invasive, post-transplant testing services dedicated to improving long-term outcomes for transplant patients.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the non-profit serving as the nation’s transplant system under contract with the federal government, more than 40,000 organ transplants were performed in 2022, setting an annual record, with total kidney transplants exceeding 25,000 for the first time ever.
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