Modoc Research Services Inc.
Julienne B. Orr, president/CEO
Year Founded: 2005
No. of Employees: 10

Modoc Research Services president and CEO Julie Orr moved to Wilmington nine years ago to follow her children who were attending college locally. Now she’s settled in the Port City 

and has established a niche contract research organization (CRO), applying more than 20 years of clinical research experience to her business.

The company officially began in 2005, but began its expansion in 2009. Since then, Modoc saw an 84 percent growth in annual revenue through the end of last year. The company moved into its new office on Racine Drive in February 2012. 

CROs like Modoc provide clinical trial supports services, and Modoc works with smaller biopharmaceutical, academic or entrepreneurial research-based companies.

“One of the more unique areas is startup companies,” Orr said. “You may have a study that is done at one location that only takes maybe 12-20 patients.”

And those startups companies don’t always have the resources for study executions, Orr said. So Modoc takes the company under its wing, guiding them through the early stages of study development.

“People look at us and think we actually go in work with the patients. But we work with the paper; we work with the documents, the data. We don’t interface with the patients themselves,” Orr said.

Modoc offers both early phase clinical development solutions and clinical trial management solutions. Orr calls it the “planning while they’re in the pre-clinical phase to get to clinical phase.”

The company also assists with medical writing.

“Medical writing is critical for a study, because you start by writing the protocol, which is basically like writing a cookbook. That document tells you everything that has to be done,” she said.

Orr applies what she learned at larger corporations to her current work with smaller companies.

“It’s important that startup companies feel they have the same expertise,” Orr said. 

“But it’s a matter of whether, first, if it’s cost effective, and there are a lot of things that come with it that they may not be aware of.”

Modoc works with a network of up to 47 people nationwide, but it has three in-house employees at the Wilmington office, including Orr’s son, Matthew, who is the executive vice president.

“Virtually, we can take a whole study and operationalize it here in North Carolina,” Orr said.

She is co-chairwoman for the Clinical Research Regional Exchange Group of the southeastern office of the N.C. Biotechnology Center.

“As the company grows, we anticipate increased employment for the company locally,” Randall Johnson, executive director of that office, said in his nomination about the firm. “The company continues to develop significant client relationships that not only benefit Modoc Research, but also benefit our community’s focus on fostering the knowledge sector economy by bringing visibility and talent to the clinical research industry in our region.”

Modoc also is a Certified Women Business Enterprise.

Orr said the company has grown “immensely” in the past year. Currently, Modoc assists four start-up companies and two mid-sized companies, in addition to its regular work with Research Triangle Park company Pharmadirections. 

“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve,” Orr said. 

“At the very beginning, could I have envisioned where we are today? To a degree. We’re filling needs in places that was bide… and we’re keeping an open mind.”