Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has won recognition for a patient-centered communications campaign demonstrating the company’s commitment to helping biopharmaceutical clients deliver life-changing medical treatments.

PPD received a Ragan Employee Communications Award for best article series for a collection of stories highlighting employees’ personal experiences with clinical trials. The series, titled “It’s Personal to Us,” featured monthly stories highlighting PPD employees who have participated in clinical trials. The campaign’s goal was to motivate employees by sharing the personal stories of struggle, hope and triumph that their colleagues had experienced, further engaging a workforce already passionately committed to finding life-saving medicines.

“At PPD, we are both professionally and personally motivated to help our clients in the search for new medicines,” said Elizabeth Kuronen, vice president of strategic communications and marketing for PPD. “Understanding the patient’s perspective is incredibly important in recruiting trial participants and for effective clinical trial design and conduct. The voices of our employees and their inspiring stories help reinforce our commitment to our ultimate goal of improving health and saving lives.”

The “It’s Personal to Us” series generated such strong readership metrics and positive feedback from employees around the globe that the company created an external campaign that demonstrates PPD employees’ commitment to clinical trials. PPD also spotlights the importance of patient-centricity in clinical trials through its annual PPD Hero campaign during the PPD Beach2Battleship Triathlon. PPD Heroes, everyday people who have overcome illness with medical treatments developed through clinical research, compete in the triathlon and raise awareness about the importance of increasing participation in clinical trials.

PPD received the Ragan Employee Communications Award earlier this month. Ragan Communications is a publisher of corporate communications, public relations and leadership development newsletters and provides professional communicators and executives with timely, practical, and relevant information in the areas of employee communication, organizational writing and editing, sales and marketing, media relations and motivational management.