Quintiles

Quintiles was founded in 1982 when Dennis Gillings, then an epidemiology professor, partnered with the former head of the genetic diseases division of Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceutical, Carl Thurtle, to form a company called Quantitative Information in Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. The partners soon changed the name to Quintiles, a derivative of the Latin word for “five” to emphasize their five original components of clinical trials: feasibility, operations, clinical personnel, data management, and analysis. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the company expanded rapidly with numerous mergers and acquisitions. At the turn of the millennium, Quintiles went public and began to focus on strengthening its offerings and expanding into new areas such as drug safety, reimbursement and market research.