Reuters has reported that Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) of Burlington, North Carolina, is in talks to acquire contract researcher Pharmaceutical Product Development LLC (PPD) for more than $8 billion.

PPD would not comment on the potential deal on Monday.
 
“I trust you will understand that PPD does not comment on speculation or rumor in the marketplace,” said Ned Glascock, PPD director of corporate communications.

“We do not comment on market rumors,” Pattie Kushner, vice president of LabCorp, also said Monday.

Based in Wilmington, PPD is an international research organization which offers integrated drug development, laboratory testing and lifecycle management services.
 
LabCorp is a leading health care diagnostics company, providing clinical laboratory services and end-to-end drug development support.
 
On Feb. 19, 2015, LabCorp acquired New Jersey-based Covance, a drug development services company providing a range of early stage and late stage product development services on a worldwide basis primarily to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. That deal was worth $5.7 billion.
 
Reuters, in the article that posted online Friday evening quoting anonymous sources it said were “familiar with the matter,” added that LabCorp “was just one of the parties participating in an auction” for PPD.
 
In December, The Wall Street Journal posted a story on its website stating that PPD had hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Centerview Partners in the search. The article, citing unnamed sources, added that a deal could be reached in the first quarter of the year if one is made.

Founded in the mid-1980s by Fred Eshelman, PPD went public in 1996. The company was sold to two investment firms in 2011 for $3.9 billion and returned then to operating as a private company.
 
PPD has 1,500 employees and a corporate headquarters building in Wilmington, but the company's reach is global, including offices in 46 countries and more than 18,500 professionals worldwide.