Life science firm opens clinical research office in Wilmington

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Emmes, a rapidly expanding contract research organization based in Rockville, Md., has opened a North Carolina office in Wilmington staffed with a dozen employees, including two top executives.

“Wilmington is a center for clinical research innovation, and creating this new office will encourage even more collaboration and idea sharing among our employees in the area,” the company’s CEO, Christine Dingivan, M.D., said in a statement. “We are thrilled to expand our presence in a community viewed as an incubator for the CRO industry.”

Emmes provides a range of services for clinical research studies led by federal agencies and institutes, as well as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Therapeutic areas include vaccines and infectious diseases, ophthalmology, and hematology.

Since December 2020, Emmes has completed five acquisitions to expand its global reach. The company has been owned by New Mountain Capital, an investment firm with more than $37 billion in assets under management, since July 2022, when New Mountain completed its purchase of ownership interests in Emmes from Behrman Capital and other investors.

The Wilmington office becomes the 19th Emmes location across the United States, Canada, India, and Europe. Emmes hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Wilmington-area civic and business leaders at its newest office on Wednesday.

Two of the company’s top leaders are based in the port city: Wendy Buckland, recently appointed as the company’s chief operating officer, who leads global operations, and Rhonda Henry, who serves as president of Emmes BioPharma. Both are former leaders at PPD, the Wilmington-based global CRO owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Emmes adds to the growing presence of CRO companies in the Wilmington area, including Alcami and Quality Chemical Laboratories.

“The clinical research community in our region continues to grow as Emmes and other companies find a home here,” said Randall Johnson, executive director of the Southeastern Office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “It’s not just the CROs themselves. There’s a strong presence of support companies and startups in clinical research, creating a diverse cluster of employers that make the region even more attractive for people and companies in life sciences.”

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