Medical Research Company Seeks Synergy with U.Va. PRA INTERNATIONAL STRENGTHENS TIES TO MEDICAL SCHOOL, WILL BECOME NORTH FORK'S THIRD TENANT IN 1999 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 9 -- PRA International, a Vienna, Va.-based medical research company, is strengthening its ties to the University of Virginia by forming a strategic alliance with U.Va.'s Medical School and in January 1999, moving its local operations into the University of Virginia Research Park at North Fork . "We are eager to expand the collaboration between PRA and the University," said Leonard W. Sandridge, U.Va.'s executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We are pleased to play a role in encouraging an important local company to remain in our region." PRA International has signed a lease with the University of Virginia Foundation for an 80,000-square-foot building, making the company the research park's third tenant. The four-story red-brick building, to be located near the research park's planned Town Center, has been designed in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson's neoclassical style, according to Mitchell-Matthews & Associates Architects, the architectural firm working on the project. "We liked the beautiful environment that North Fork offers our employees, its location near the airport, the opportunity to develop a closer affiliation with the University, and the University's dedicated efforts to accommodate our unique needs," said PRA Chief Executive Officer Earle Martin. "PRA is proud to be at the forefront of the expansion of this research park, which should benefit the company, its employees and the region. The new alliance between PRA International and the University's Medical School is expected to expose medical faculty and students to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries while providing PRA International with access to University experts in radiology, advanced biostatistical methods and other medical fields. The alliance will begin with the Department of Radiology and is slated to expand to include outpatient clinical facilities and the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences. "This is a terrific opportunity for the department to participate in new drug development with an outstanding clinical research organization," said Bruce J. Hillman, Theodore Keats Professor and chairman of the U.Va. Medical Center's Department of Radiology. "Everybody wins with this alliance. PRA enhances what it can offer its clients, the department improves the quality and volume of its research, and pharmaceutical companies have a quicker and better way of getting new drugs to patients." Department of Radiology Under the proposed alliance, the University's Department of Radiology will become a central reading facility for X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging tests for PRA International's clinical trials for cancer and other treatments. Establishing a single reading facility with board certified experts should ensure accurate, consistent interpretation of images for PRA International's clients, while its close location to the company's project managers should speed the handling and reporting of results. PRA International and the University plan to jointly develop a software tracking system that will further improve the management of imaging test results. Department of Health Evaluation Sciences PRA International is in discussions with faculty members in the University's Department of Health Evaluation Sciences to secure consultants in advanced biostatistical modeling. This would enhance the company's ability to design, collect and analyze patient data from large clinical trials. Medical Center staff members, many of whom have significant experience in working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on drug trials, likewise may agree to assist the company. According to William A. Knaus, Evelyn Troup Hobson Professor and chairman of the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences, "It is becoming increasingly difficult to know how new drug therapies should be used. This potential alliance will improve this understanding by more closely linking our department's research and biostatistical capabilities with the broad spectrum of drug testing supported by PRA." Outpatient Clinical Facilities Company and University officials also are discussing other avenues of cooperation on clinical trials of new drugs and medical devices. If agreed to by both parties, the University's outpatient facility at Northridge would serve as a clinical investigational site for PRA International, while other University-owned medical practices throughout Virginia might join the program later. The agreement would expand PRA International's network of quality investigational sites to enhance its expertise in women's health and allergy and respiratory disorders while building expertise in other areas through contact with the University's specialized clinics. The agreement is also intended to provide expanded opportunities for U.Va.'s medical faculty to design and conduct clinical research, while making available new internships and medical rotations to medical and nursing students interested in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, fields not usually covered by the medical curriculum. University of Virginia Research Park at North Fork PRA International's predecessor company began operations in Charlottesville as a medical investigative site affiliated with U.Va. Since then, the company has expanded internationally and now offers pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers a full range of services to test drugs and devices in patients and assist its clients in obtaining regulatory approval. In early 1997, PRA acquired International Medical Technical Consultants, Inc., enabling the company to expand its services further to include investigational sites for treatment of patients enrolled in clinical trials. Over the past two decades the company has grown to employ more than 550 people in the United States and Europe, and expects to bring in more than $60 million in 1998 revenues, Martin said. In Charlottesville, the company employs 190 people who perform the full range of contract clinical research services offered to PRA International's clients, according to Bruce Teplitzky, vice president of operations for the company's Charlottesville subsidiary. The company has grown so rapidly that employees are now spread around the city in three buildings. "At PRA, project teams support the drug development process," Teplitzky said. "The move to North Fork will consolidate our operations in a first-class environment that should enable the teams to work to their highest potential." PRA will join the park's first two tenants, MicroAire Surgical Instruments Co., Inc. and Motion Control Industries, Inc., both of which operate new product research and development laboratories on the site. MicroAire, a surgical instruments manufacturer and a unit of the Marmon Group, moved its headquarters from California to North Fork in 1995. The research and development headquarters of Motion Control, a subsidiary of Syracuse, N.Y.-based Carlisle Companies Inc., a manufacturer of construction materials and transportation products, has operated from the site since 1996. The University's two research parks, at North Fork and on Fontaine Avenue, offer businesses opportunities for close cooperation with a broad array of research experts on the U.Va. faculty -- in science, technology, engineering and medicine. Companies also have found the Charlottesville-Albemarle metropolitan area to offer a highly skilled labor pool, because of its proximity to the University, and an attractive quality of life. The PRA facility will be the sixth building to have been started or completed in the University's research parks over the past two years. The University of Virginia Research Park at North Fork is located along the north fork of the Rivanna River in Albemarle County, about six miles north of Charlottesville on U.S. Route 29, near the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. The Fontaine Research Park lies southwest of the University on Fontaine Avenue, just outside the city limits in Albemarle County. ### Dec. 8, 1997 For more information about PRA International, call Bruce Teplitzky in Charlottesville at (804) 977-2772, or Earle Martin in Vienna at (703) 748-0760. For more information about the University of Virginia's research parks, call Tim Rose at (804) 982-4848. For more information about the program in radiology, call Bruce Hillman at (804) 982-0211; or in biostatistical modeling, call William Knaus at (804) 924-8430. For information about obtaining an architect's rendering of the building, call Charlotte Crystal at (804) 924-6858.