8-K

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                       SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                              Washington, DC 20549



                                    FORM 8-K


                                 CURRENT REPORT

                     Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
                         Securities Exchange Act of 1934


      Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): September 16, 1999





                          QUINTILES TRANSNATIONAL CORP.
             (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)


 NORTH CAROLINA                   340-23520                     56-1714315
 (State or other            (Commission File No.)             I.R.S. Employer
  jurisdiction                                             Identification Number
of incorporation)


             4709 CREEKSTONE DRIVE, RIVERBIRCH BUILDING, SUITE 200,
                       DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27703-8411
                    (Address of principal executive offices)


                                 (919) 998-2000
              (Registrant's telephone number, including area code)


                                       N/A
          (Former name or former address, if changed since last report)




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ITEM 5.           OTHER EVENTS.

         On September 15, 1999, Quintiles Transnational Corp. (the "Company")
issued the press release attached hereto as Exhibit 99.01 and incorporated by
reference herein.

ITEM 7.

         (c)      EXHIBITS

          Exhibit No.               Description of Exhibit
          -----------               ----------------------

          99.01                     Press release, dated September 15, 1999.


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                                   SIGNATURES

         Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.


                                  QUINTILES TRANSNATIONAL CORP.


                                  By: /s/ Rachel R. Selisker
                                      ------------------------------------------
Dated: September 16, 1999             Rachel R. Selisker
                                      Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice
                                      President Finance



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                                  EXHIBIT INDEX



         Exhibit No.           Description of Exhibit
         -----------           ----------------------

         99.01                 Press release, dated September 15, 1999

EX-99.01

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[LOGO]

                                   QUINTILES
                                 TRANSNATIONAL

                                                                    NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          www.quintiles.com

CONTACT:  Pat Grebe, Media Relations (pgrebe@quintiles.com)
          Greg Connors, Investor Relations (invest@quintiles.com)
          (919) 998-2000

               QUINTILES LOWERS EARNINGS TARGETS, CITING CLASS OF
                            CARDIOVASCULAR PRODUCTS;
                         PROJECT BACKLOG REMAINS STRONG

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - September 15, 1999 - Quintiles Transnational
Corp. (Nasdaq: QTRN) today announced that it expects financial results for its
third quarter ended Sept. 30, 1999, to come in below analysts' estimates. Based
on preliminary results received this week for the month of August, and a revised
forecast for September, management estimates that earnings for the third quarter
will be about $0.27 per share. Management attributes the slower than expected
growth to the performance of its Quintiles Product Development service group,
which has been affected during the quarter, in part, by the early terminations
of several large-scale ongoing clinical programs involving a specific class of
cardiovascular drugs found not to be efficacious. In addition, the need to more
efficiently distribute backlog among therapeutic business units and better match
resources to demand affected performance.

The company also has revised its estimates for fourth quarter earnings to about
$0.32 per share. Earnings are projected by management to grow approximately 25
percent during the year 2000.

"Our anticipated shortfall stems largely from the unprecedented cessation by
pharmaceutical companies of clinical programs tied to a single class of
cardiovascular drugs," said Rachel Selisker, Chief Financial Officer and
Executive Vice President, Finance, Quintiles Transnational Corp. "The early
terminations of global projects in one therapeutic area made it particularly
difficult to switch resources to other projects. While we are encouraged that
our backlog is exceptionally strong, it is not spread evenly across all of our
therapeutic business units, which sometimes creates a mismatch of demand and
resources. We are taking steps to distribute backlog more efficiently and
balance revenues and expenses across the Product Development service group."

Dennis Gillings, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Quintiles
Transnational Corp., said: "While we are disappointed with the anticipated
results for this quarter, we remain highly confident of our growth opportunity
and the success of our business model across the whole of the company. In
particular, the performance of our commercialization sector, our electronic
transactions processing business and our QUINTERNET(TM) Informatics service
group remain on target. We also believe that the fundamentals of the product
development sector remain strong for companies such as ourselves that offer
diversified global services for large-scale projects."

Ludo Reynders, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Quintiles Product Development,
added: "Through our services to the pharmaceutical industry we help bring drugs
quickly to market. We also help hasten the discovery that some drugs in
development should not be brought to market, and because of this, some of our
contracts terminate early. In August, our cardiovascular group

Quintiles Transnational Corp.
P. O. Box 13979
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3979
919-941-2000/Fax 919-941-2041
http://www.quintiles.com
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faced early termination of several clinical programs largely as the result of
findings - to which our work contributed - presented at a meeting of the
European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona. We remain committed to deploying
our resources in the best way to serve our customers across the entire arena of
drug development."

Quintiles Transnational Corp. is the market leader in providing a full range of
integrated product development and commercialization solutions to the
pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Quintiles also is a
leader in electronic transactions processing and informatics for the healthcare
sector and provides healthcare policy consulting to governments and other
organizations worldwide.

Headquartered near Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Quintiles is a member
of the Forbes Platinum 400, the Fortune 1000, the Business Week Global 1000 and
the Nasdaq-100 Index. With more than 19,000 employees worldwide and offices in
31 countries, Quintiles operates through specialized work groups dedicated to
meeting customers' individual needs. Visit the Quintiles Transnational Web site
at www.quintiles.com.

Information in this press release contains "forward-looking statements." These
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially, including without limitation, our ability to efficiently
distribute backlog among therapeutic business units and match demand to
resources, actual operating performance, the ability to maintain large client
contracts or to enter into new contracts, the ability to operate successfully in
new lines of business, the ability of the recently combined businesses to be
integrated with Quintiles' current operations, and the actual costs of combining
the businesses. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially are discussed in the company's recent filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including but not limited to its S-3 and S-4 Registration
Statements, its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Form 8-Ks, and its other
periodic reports, including Form 10-Qs.

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