Hundreds of jobs set for biotech park

Medical researcher PPD will do hiring

A medical research company with headquarters in Wilmington and roughly 1,700 employees in the Triangle will hire several hundred more in the next three years to work at the blossoming N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

PPD Inc. offers drug companies a wide range of services involving clinical and data research. It's the first private company to make a significant commitment of jobs at the campus -- a 350-acre complex of labs, offices, homes and stores at the former Pillowtex mill site northeast of Charlotte.

CEO Fred Eshelman said the company expects to hire 200 to 300 people for positions such as clinical research associates, clinical project managers and others. The people will work with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on the campus.

The $1.5 billion campus in Kannapolis is backed by billionaire developer David H. Murdock, owner of Dole Food. Murdock has pledged $1 billion of his own money to the project.

A nutrition fanatic, Murdock has pledged to bring the best equipment and scientists in the world to Kannapolis to change the way fruits and vegetables are grown and consumed. Research there will focus on health and nutrition, with much of it conducted by seven N.C. universities and private companies that are still being recruited.

Open-source software company Red Hat of Raleigh announced last year that it would open an office at the research campus. Details of that move, including the number of employees involved, have not been released. Several smaller companies have also agreed to work at the campus, which is still under construction.

Long-range plans call for 35,000 jobs on or near the campus, potentially a major economic boost to a region hit hard by the decline in textile manufacturing. When the Pillowtex mill closed in 2003, it wiped out several thousand jobs.

Eshelman said that when he first heard of Murdock's plans to start a biotech complex at the site of a former textile complex, he "just assumed this was another case of a man with more money than sense. Now that I got to know him, I realized he made his money because of his sense and vision."

PPD's work with clinical trial data dovetails with Murdock's mission, particularly a major project announced in September by Duke University to study heart disease, obesity, arthritis and depression over generations. Duke officials hope the scope of that study will be similar to the Framingham heart study.

"When I promised three years ago that the N.C. Research Campus would attract the greatest scientists and companies in the world to create cures for our most deadly and debilitating diseases, it was with companies like PPD in mind," Murdock said.

PPD, which reported $1.4 billion in revenue last year, works with a variety of customers worldwide in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, academics and government.

With offices in 30 countries, it is part of an industry that has grown rapidly in recent years. PPD and rivals such as Quintiles Transnational of Durham are expanding as drug companies farm out research work to reduce costs.

PPD employed 5,600 people globally -- 2,000 in North Carolina -- in 2003. Today, it has 11,200 employees worldwide, including 3,700 in North Carolina.

(Charlotte Observer staff writer Adam Bell contributed to this report.)