He Issues Challenge for Matching Funds: “Movement Attracts Fire”

Above: Jacque Marinac, Fred Eshelman, and Susan Fagan

The Research Institute wishes to thank Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D., for honoring the organization’s research efforts by contributing more than $240,000 to the Frontiers Fund. The gift was received by Susan Fagan, 2008 Chair of the ACCP Research Institute Board of Trustees, and Jacqueline Marinac, ACCP Director of Research, at the PPD National Headquarters in Wilmington, North Carolina, on February 4, 2008. Dr. Eshelman served on the ACCP Research Institute Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2007.

Dr. Eshelman is the founder and chief executive officer of PPD, the company he established as a one-person consulting firm in 1985. Today, PPD is a leading global contract research organization (CRO) providing discovery, development, and post-approval services as well as compound partnering programs. Fred told Drs. Fagan and Marinac that the driving force to start his company came after the birth of his daughter, Kimberly, who is currently attending the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He said that the birth of a child changes everything. “I now had to plan for her future,” he said. “I had a good job in industry, a new family, and a mortgage. I had a good job with a solid future, but I wanted something more,” he explained. His career has included positions as Senior Vice President of Development and Vice President of Clinical Operations for the former Glaxo, Inc., as well as various roles in drug development with other pharmaceutical companies.

PPD employs more than 10,000 professionals in 69 offices and 30 countries around the world. When asked what PPD has to offer young clinical pharmacists, he stated, “We don’t offer $90,000 to start and stay in the same job doing the same thing for 20 years, but we do offer the chance to start at an entry level, and we have opportunities for upward promotional advancement to positions of significant authority and prominence. We often recruit talented individuals from our own fellowship programs, where we can see how well they perform within our organization. Most come to us directly from Pharm.D. programs,” he added. He suggested that ACCP engage the biotechnology industry in programs, dialogue, and education, “because the role of pharmacists will be significantly changed in the near future and they are going to be the only professionals capable of providing individualized biopharmaceutical care.”

Dr. Eshelman received his doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Cincinnati and his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a graduate of the Owner President Management (OPM) program at Harvard Business School. “As a native of North Carolina and a graduate as well as long-time supporter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fred has demonstrated a significant history of philanthropy and dedication to the pharmacy profession that is exemplary,” Marinac said. When asked how he would like to be acknowledged for his contribution to the Research Institute, he replied, “Quietly.”

When the Research Institute informed him of its shift in priorities away from administering grants only and shared with him the new programs and services being offered by the Research Institute in 2008, including the Focused Investigator Training (FIT) and Research and Scholarship Development Academy Programs, his comment was, “Movement attracts fire,” referring to the important change in direction taking place within the Research Institute. He then issued a direct challenge to his industry and to former colleagues to match his donation. Upon hearing the offer to have a Research Institute award or program named in his honor, he quickly replied, “Get someone to match my donation and name it after him or her.” Any takers?