Contract research organization Cetero Research is closing its Cary headquarters and moving operations to North Dakota following its sale after bankruptcy proceedings.

No local employees will lose their jobs in the move.

On June 20, the Chicago-based Freeport Financial Group, which owned Cetero’s brick-and-mortar properties, finalized its $80 million purchase of the company, which will now be called the PRACS Institute after a legacy company Cetero had purchased in 2006.

Cetero, which conducts Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, struggled financially over the past year and filed for bankruptcy in March. The move was spurred by a yearlong investigation the Food and Drug Administration conducted into allegations of fraud by chemists in Cetero’s Houston laboratory, who had falsified clinical trial records to be paid overtime.

The FDA investigation was resolved in April, and PRACS Institute is still redoing some work for the pharmaceutical companies whose records were affected by the investigation.

Raymond H. Hill, CEO of the Wilmington-based drug-research company PPD, has resigned.

Hill's resignation took effect Monday, company spokesman Ned Glascock said.

Hill took over as CEO Sept. 16. His resignation came exactly a week after PPD was acquired by two private equity firms, The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, for $3.9 billion.

"Our new board of directors and our entire team want to thank him for his leadership and his contributions during this transition period of going from a public company to a private company," Glascock said.

Glascock said the board would hire a new CEO in the near future.

In the interim, PPD will be led by a four-person executive committee that includes the company's COO, CFO, chief medical officer and general counsel.

INC Research, a Raleigh company that assists drug makers with clinical trials, has hired a member of its Board of Directors to be its new chief financial officer.

David Gill, who was on the company's board from 2007 to 2010, replaces the retiring Dan Hartnett. He started in his new position last week.

Gill, 56, was previously CFO of Transenterix, a Morrisville company that makes surgical products.

Gill said in an interview on Wednesday that the move was a natural one for him given his relationship with INC CEO James Ogle and his knowledge of the company after spending four years on its board.

"More and more pharmaceutical and biotech companies are outsourcing more projects and so the market's growing rapidly," he said. "I think the company is well poised to do very well over the next several years."

INC's nearly 2,000 employees help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conduct clinical trials in 40 countries. The company has 629 employees in North Carolina, 575 of which are located in Raleigh.