New healthcare-related products, services, and companies
TGaS Advisors Offers Regulatory Service TGaS Advisors has launched the next generation of its Commercial Compliance Benchmark (CCB) to help companies navigate in a demanding and evolving regulatory environment. The new benchmark expands and enhances a previous offering from TGaS Advisors. Participating companies can expect to learn operational best practices in areas such as governance, organizational structure, and resources. The new solution, aligned with current regulations, benchmarks more than 400 elements, including how companies typically organize compliance functions and allocate resources. The solution also helps companies identify issues that relate to the regulatory environment, understand how different companies handle these issues, and optimize existing technology to meet compliance objectives. Managing Partner Stephen Gerard says TGaS Advisors’ research found compliance to be one of the areas of greatest change for the coming year. “The new benchmark will give clients a thorough understanding of the dynamic regulatory climate and a way to evaluate their own compliance status internally and against their industry peers," Mr. Gerard adds. In developing the new benchmark, TGaS Advisors partnered with Robert Melillo, an experienced attorney widely recognized as an authority on compliance. Mr. Melillo is a founder of Pharmaceutical Resource Solutions, a leader in pharma compliance management that is now part of inVentiv Health. Our 2009 Annual State of Pharmaceutical Commercial Operations found compliance to be one of the areas of greatest change for the coming year, says Stephen Gerard of TGaS Advisors. New Momentum Agency Focuses on Wellness Trends The new unit is focused on brand activation experiences and dialogue marketing. Two McCann Worldgroup agencies — Momentum Worldwide and McCann Healthcare Worldwide — have joined forces to launch Momentum Wellness. Momentum Wellness is led by President John Hopper, a marketing veteran who was previously CEO of Power Marketing Partners and managing partner of several WPP agencies, and Global Wellness Director Michael Semler, a Momentum Worldwide healthcare executive. Momentum Wellness achieves brand activation through experiential marketing and strategic collaborations between companies and organizations to educate and enlighten consumers while building brand equity. “Momentum Wellness combines the strengths of both agency networks to offer health-oriented brand activation experiences that leverage customer interests and lifestyles through partnerships, live events, online forums, sports and entertainment properties, and celebrity tie-ins," says Chris Weil, chairman and CEO of Momentum Worldwide. “Momentum Wellness’ deep heritage in experiential and partnership marketing comes through our combined years of working with more than 100 companies and brands," Mr. Hopper adds. We believe passionately that the future of marketing is fusing a consumer’s physical brand experience with the reach of digital technologies, says Momentum Wellness’’ John Hopper. SalesForce4Hire Launches Sales Prototyping Service SalesForce4Hire’s recently introduced sales prototyping service is designed to optimize market launch speed while minimizing business and financial risk. The objective of the sales process prototype is to provide real-world feedback, accelerating the sales learning curve prior to the full-scale sales launch of a product or service. SalesForce4Hire’s prototyping process applies its Sales Accelerator System as a scaled operational model focused on a designated market target for a specified period of time at a fixed price. “While every company diligently prototypes their product, we were witnessing a dearth of formal, measurable prototyping of the sales process itself," says Managing Director Kevin Schimelfenig. “Our sales prototyping service cuts through the fog of an initial market launch, delivering hard facts and key customer preferences that help companies avoid costly missteps coming out of the gate." We realized there was often a gap in the proactive development of sales processes critical to the market launch, says Kevin Schimelfenig of SalesForce4Hire. CommonHealth Launches Second Managed Market Agency Valos, a newly launched offshoot of sister CommonHealth agency Solara, provides strategic marketing services and strategic and tactical solutions to improve patient access to pharmaceutical brands competing in managed markets. Valos helps its clients define and promote the value of brands across their life cycle, from prelaunch through patent expiration. Valos also focuses on developing wellness, disease management, and quality improvement initiatives. “The shift in the healthcare industry toward a customer-centric marketing model means clients must think and behave differently in order to succeed in a rapidly evolving healthcare system," notes Shaun Urban, president of both Valos and Solara. “Establishing Valos as the organization’s second managed markets division is a natural progression for CommonHealth to help better serve the diverse needs of our clients." “The fact that the Valos team has at its fingertips on all of the resources in the CommonHealth network will serve to enhance their offerings," says Stacey Singer, managing partner of CommonHealth, who is responsible for overseeing the organization’s medical education and managed care business units. around the globe ABBOTT LABORATORIES has opened its first pharmaceutical research and development site in Southeast Asia. The pharmaceutical analytical research laboratory, located in Singapore’s Biopolis research park, conducts stability studies to support global regulatory requirements for new pharmaceutical products. This enables Abbott to accelerate the development of innovative investigational medicines and potentially deliver new treatments to patients faster in areas such as neuroscience and cancer. For more information, visit abbott.com. The Freiberg and Munich offices of German healthcare advertising agency Angela Liedler GmbH are now operating as GSW Europe, part of the GSW Worldwide advertising network. GSW Worldwide’s parent company, inVentiv Health, has owned a controlling interest in Angela Liedler since 2007. As part of the rebranding, GSW Europe has launched a new Website and promotional campaign that reflects the agency’s pharmaceutical and OTC specialty experience and representation in all the important European healthcare markets. GSW Europe has headquarters in Munich and has European agency partners in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Sweden. For more information, visit gsweurope.com. ON THE SHELVES A second edition of RISKY BUSINESS: MANAGING THE QUALITY OF AMERICA’S MEDICINES has been released by FDAnews. In the updated version, author Robert Rhoades, practice director, pharmaceutical quality and compliance, at Becker & Associates Consulting, offers insights from more than three decades of industry experience. With a new administration, an embattled FDA under scrutiny from Congress, and an industry under fire for insufficient controls in the supply chain from foreign manufacturing sites, the book provides clear and actionable guidance for executives responsible for risk management, both in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit fdanews.com. The Barnett International publication, NEW DRUG DEVELOPMENT: A REGULATORY OVERVIEW 2008, addresses the cutting-edge developments redefining how new drugs are developed and regulated today. Some of the topics covered in the guide include the impact of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007; CDER’s transition to electronic submissions and effort to integrate a “culture of drug safety," and their impact on the center’s structure and processes; which drug development strategies are fulfilling their promise and offering optimal returns for industry; and the integration of pharmacogenomics, computer simulation, and other emerging technologies to inform key decisions. For more information, visit barnettinternational.com. Cutting Edge Information Adds Customized Survey Service Cutting Edge now offers a complete spectrum of services to executives who need to benchmark processes, costs, staffing, strategy, and a host of other issues, says Yanis Saradjian. Cutting Edge Information’s new consulting arm offers customized industry survey capabilities that help life-sciences teams execute strategy, understand key business issues, and support ideas of key executives. It specializes in helping life-sciences companies assess their analytics and identify areas to improve the overall efficiency of operational processes. Its customized survey service is designed to quickly deliver the custom survey data required for critical decision support. “The move comes as a natural extension of Cutting Edge Information’s current consulting and market research initiatives," says Yanis Saradjian, Cutting Edge’s director of consulting. Follow up Cutting Edge Information provides research and consulting to the pharmaceutical industry and the financial services industry. For more information, visit cuttingedgeinfo.com. Momentum Wellness, a unit of Momentum Worldwide, is a global wellness agency focused on brand activation experiences and dialogue marketing. For more information, visit momentumww.com. SalesForce4Hire provides custom sales solutions to emerging and existing medical device and life-sciences companies seeking to accelerate market penetration and profitable revenue generation. For more information, visit salesforce4hire.com. TGaS Advisors LLC is a benchmarking company focused on pharmaceutical commercial operations. For more information, visit tgas.com. Valos, a CommonHealth company, is a full-service, managed markets communications agency. For more information, visit commonhealth.com.
