By Stephen Nakrosis

Shares of pharmaceutical-testing company PPD Inc. are trading higher on the Nasdaq Wednesday, after The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," exclusively reported that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the company.

At 3:47 p.m. ET, shares of PPD had risen to $43.50, surpassing previous 52-week highs. Volume at the time topped 606,000 shares. The stock's 65-day average volume is just over 1 million shares.

At 3:55 p.m. ET, shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific were trading 1.24% lower, at $478.84.

The Wall Street Journal said Thermo Fisher would buy PPD for over $15 billion.

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-14-21 1613ET