Dr. David Johnston serves as executive vice president of PPD and global head of PPD Laboratories. In his current role, Dr. Johnston directs PPD’s industry leading, comprehensive laboratory services, including bioanalytical, vaccine sciences, GMP laboratories and global central laboratory services.

A biopharmaceutical industry veteran with more than 18 years of leadership experience in the management of clinical trials, Johnston joined PPD in 2013 from LabCorp, where he served as senior vice president and global head of the clinical trials business. Dr. Johnston has a diverse background in clinical research, including experience leading R&D teams, clinical trials quality assurance, multinational laboratory operations and having served as the CSO for a global pharma services organization.

A pioneer in the field of personalized medicine, Dr. Johnston founded one of the industry’s first companion diagnostics initiatives, which has since supported dozens of co-development projects with pharma and led to the first laboratory-sponsored PMA filing using a novel commercialization model.  Dr. Johnston has studied gene regulation and surface virulence determinants in the pathogeic Neisseriae, and drug resistance mutations in HIV.  He has overseen the development of dozens of novel clinical genotyping assays in the areas of infectious disease, genetics and pharmacogenomics, including the first clinical genotyping assays for HIV drug resistance and HCV subtype determination.

Dr. Johnston volunteers on the Board of Directors for Prevention Partners, and was previously on the Board of Trustees for Be Active North Carolina.  He has served on the scientific advisory boards for Kylin Therapeutics, Gene Express and a venture capital firm.  He previously served as an adjunct professor of clinical research at Campbell University School of Pharmacy and has lectured on clinical research at several other area universities.  Dr. Johnston was awarded the Triangle Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” leadership award in 2008.

Johnston earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. His professional affiliations include the American Society for Microbiology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Drug Information Association and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.