Fred Eshelman will be a part of the new PPD spin-off company.

“Dr. Eshelman will be heavily involved in it,” said Sue Ann Pentecost, a PPD spokesperson. The new company is based off PPD’s compound partnering division. Financial information for the new company was not provided.

The new company will become its own entity in the middle of this year and will also be  public company, according to a press release.

No initial public offering has been set yet, according to Pentecost. No name or company location has been chosen either. Pentecost said that employees in Wilmington, the Research Triangle and other offices work in compound partnering.

According to background information from PPD, compound partnering helps other drug makers bring a drug to market faster.

Previous clients in this field include Johnson & Johnson’s Priligy drug and Takeda's Alogliptin.

PPD was founded in 1985 by Fred Eshelman in Wilmington as a one-person consulting firm. It now has offices in about 40 countries and nearly 10,000 employees worldwide.