PRA International / PRAI

About PRA International

12120 Sunset HIlls Rd., Suite 600, Reston, Va. 20190
www.prainternational.com | 703-464-6300 | Founded: 1976

Industry: Biotechnology | Category: Public Companies

The business PRA is in, known as contract research, is booming. A recent report by the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University found that the industry is growing 15 percent a year, as more companies turn to specialized outside organizations to help them manage studies that become more complicated each year.
And PRA is growing even faster than the industry as a whole, so much that the company is having trouble hiring enough people to fill its openings. "It is my No. 1 problem," said Patrick Donnelly, president and chief executive. "We hired 600-plus people last year between turnover and growth." At any given time, the company is typically trying to fill more than 100 openings, he said.
PRA competes with a half-dozen global players to help drug and biotech companies with the specialized tests that can prove, or disprove, the worth of a new drug. PRA employees sign up doctors and other health-care providers to help test drugs; enroll patients; and collect and analyze the data needed to show whether a drug works as expected and whether it is safe.
Ultimately, much of the company's work winds up in front of the Food and Drug Administration as the agency considers whether to license new drugs.
Donnelly said the company is expanding globally, as more of its customers decide to conduct drug tests in multiple countries at once. The Tufts study found that companies that use specialized contractors for this work tend to do a better job meeting deadlines and otherwise achieving their goals, a finding that could drive further market expansion.

2005 Financial Data

Revenues: $326,244,000 | Net Income: $32,223,000
Asssets: $329,364,000 | Earnings Per Share: $1.32
Total employees: 2,400 | Local employees: 50