Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), a Wilmington, N.C.-based CRO, has exercised its option to acquire the remaining minority ownership interest of X-Chem. X-Chem, a biotechnology company based in Waltham, Mass., will continue to operate as a biotechnology company with its entire existing staff, including its management team led by CEO and founder Richard W. Wagner, Ph.D., along with executive management team members Diala Ezzeddine, Ph.D., chief business officer; Matthew Clark, Ph.D., sr. vice president of research; and Lee Babiss as chairman of the board.

PPD acquired a controlling interest in X-Chem in October 2010, along with the right to purchase the remaining interest on or before Oct. 31, 2014. PPD’s decision to acquire the remaining minority interest in X-Chem is based on, among other factors, the successful business model that X-Chem has built and the growing interest by pharmaceutical firms to gain access to X-Chem’s proprietary small molecule discovery technology.

“Four years ago, PPD made a strategic decision to invest in X-Chem, based on their highly innovative drug discovery engine,” David Simmons, chairman and CEO of PPD said. “X-Chem has demonstrated the value of its technology through establishment of an increasing number of relationships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, along with academic centers. Through these relationships, X-Chem has emerged as one of the top small molecule drug discovery companies in the biotechnology industry.”

Since 2010, X-Chem has established partnerships with Roche, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Pfizer and two additional major pharmaceutical companies, as well as several biotechnology companies and academic institutions. In collaboration with its partners, the company has applied its powerful product engine fueled by a proprietary DNA-encoded small molecule library in excess of 100 billion distinct compounds to the generation of novel therapeutics against dozens of validated targets.