The chief executive officer of PRA Health Sciences Inc. made $5.8 million exercising stock options, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

PRA Health filed a Form 4 stating President and CEO Colin Shannon exercised stock options at $2.94 for 100,000 shares of common stock, selling them at $61.50, profiting $5.85 million.

PRA is a health care research organization headquartered in Raleigh that specializes in clinical research, phase I-IIa, phase II-III, post approval, safety and risk management, therapeutic exercises, biosimilars, bioanalytical laboratories, rare disease and oncology.

Shannon has served as CEO of the company since Jan. 1, 2010, and was previously president and chief operating officer of PRA from 2007 to 2010.

Shannon holds a master’s in business administration from City University in London and is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Association of Accountants.

Note: This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism