PPD Pledges $5 Million to Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

PPD Chairman of the Board Pledges $5 Million to Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

WILMINGTON, N.C., Oct 29, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq:PPDI) today announced the Mario Family Foundation has pledged $5 million to the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Dr. Ernest Mario and his wife, Millie, established the foundation, and he serves as chairman of the board of directors at PPD.

The pledge was the largest individual gift during the university's 2007-2008 fiscal year and will be used to support graduate fellowships in the pharmacy school. Dr. and Mrs. Mario donated $5 million to the university's pharmacy school in 2001. The school was renamed the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy that year.

"PPD CEO Fred Eshelman and I are fortunate to have the pharmacy schools we attended named in our honor--Fred at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and I at Rutgers," Dr. Mario said. "Thanks to the success of PPD, and the hard work of its more than 10,500 employees globally, Fred and I have been given the opportunity to support pharmacy education and to encourage the continued health of our profession in a concrete and lasting way."

A 1961 graduate of Rutgers College of Pharmacy, Dr. Mario was awarded an honorary doctorate by Rutgers in 1992. He is chairman and chief executive officer of Capnia, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company based in Palo Alto, Calif.

In 2007, the American Pharmacists Association awarded Dr. Mario its Remington Honor Medal, the highest accolade of the pharmacy profession. He has a longstanding record of educational philanthropy, having served as chairman of the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education and trustee of Duke University from 1989 to 2007, during which time he was chairman of the Duke University Health System.

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing discovery, development and post-approval services as well as compound partnering programs. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 33 countries and more than 10,500 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a commitment to quality to help its clients and partners maximize returns on their R&D investments and accelerate the delivery of safe and effective therapeutics to patients.
For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.ppdi.com.

SOURCE: PPD, Inc.

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