PPD founder makes largest ever donation to UNC

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — PPD founder Fred Eshelman plans to donate $100 million to the pharmacy school at UNC Chapel Hill, which already bears his name.

The pledge is the largest in the university’s history and largest ever made to a pharmacy school in the United States, according to a UNC news release.

Eshelman is a 1972 graduate of the school, founder and former CEO of Wilmington-based Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) and founding chairman of Furiex Pharmaceuticals. UNC named its pharmacy school for him in 2008.

“I am inspired by the work being done by students, faculty and staff in the School of Pharmacy,” Eshelman said. “In the past 10 years, the school has generated more than 130 patents and created 15 spin-off companies. Their success demonstrates the power and the future of drug discovery in academia, and it’s a future that I am eager and proud to support.”

The university says the money will be used to create a center within the school named the Eshelman Institute for Innovation. Through strategic collaborations inside and outside the university, the institute will help fuel innovation, create jobs and spur economic development in the state, while enabling the school to pursue new ways to enhance its position as a national and international leader.

UNC says Eshelman previously donated $38 million to the school, including $3 million to support the school’s drug-discovery center (2014); $2.5 million for pharmacy education, pharmacy practice, research and training (2012); $9 million for cancer research (2008); and $20 million for scholarships, fellowships, faculty development in teaching and research, partnership development with community pharmacists, and residency programs (2003). There are currently five Eshelman Distinguished Professors at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.