Reuters is reporting that Wilmington-based Pharmaceutical Product Development could be testing the waters for a sale or initial public offering.
 
The report, released Friday and citing unnamed sources, said such a deal could value the contract research organization at $7 billion-$8 billion including debt.
 
PPD spokesman Ned Glascock said Friday afternoon that the company did not have a response to the report.
 
“PPD does not comment on speculation or rumor in the marketplace,” Glascock said.
 
The Reuters article stated that according to its sources PPD’s private equity owners, The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, “have reached out to investment banks about appointing financial advisers to PPD.”
 
Founded in the mid-1980s by Fred Eshelman, PPD went public in 1996. The company was sold to the investment firms in 2011 for $3.9 billion and returned then to operating as a private company.

About 1,500 people work for the company locally and more than 14,500 worldwide. In recent years, it has expanded its footprint with aquisitions and joint ventures with other companies involved with the clinical trials process.