Company History

Although Appian International Research, Inc. is a relative newcomer to the Contract Research arena, its founder and president, Dr. Grier Harris, has worked in clinical product development since 1986, focusing on clinical trial management and quality services since 1998.This work was conducted under the direction of several different companies, including Clinical Development Associates, Pharmaceutical Development Associates, ClinSites, SFBC Charlotte, and SFBC International.

In 2004, Dr. Harris left SFBC International and began working full-time for Appian Services, LLC, a consulting company specializing in the design, planning and oversight of clinical endpoint bioequivalence trials that he had established in 2003. After just over two years, this small company had grown so rapidly that Dr. Harris decided to move the project oversight function to a separate business entity, Appian International Research, Inc., and to add quality assurance, study management and outsourcing support services to its offerings.

Appian International Research is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, conveniently close to Charlotte Douglas Airport, a US Airways hub, and only two hours by car from Research Triangle Park. Charlotte was recently recognized as the second largest banking center in the United States, and is home to a variety of sporting venues, such as Charlotte Motor Speedway, Panther Stadium and Bobcats Arena.

The Appian International Research offices are located in The Ben Craig Center, a technology incubator site owned by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This site provides access to a number of technology resources, and has such features as a 60 seat training room, high speed  internet connectivity, and several boardroom and classroom spaces.

Appian International Research is currently utilizing the teaching areas to provide GCP training to regional site coordinators. Appian also currently serves as an internship site for graduate students from The University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy, Wingate University School of Pharmacy, Boston University and The University of North Carolina School of Nursing and provides educational services to the Cabarrus College of Health Sciences.

The Appian International Research team is dedicated to making sure that all pharmaceutical development projects are conducted in a way that meets not only your timeline and budgetary goals, but also in a way that assumes an understanding that we are a partnership, not just a vendor, and that our success depends on our clients’ successes. This way of approaching our service activities is, we believe, unique to the contract research industry. It is a way of thinking, a way of acting, a way of working with all of our clients, both internal and external. It is the Appian Way.