New Healthcare-related Products, Services, and Companies
Trend: Healthcare agencies are shifting their service models to better address the market’s evolving approach to health and well-being.
Featured Briefs: GSW Expands Health and Wellness Capabilities Newport Module Provides Biologics Intelligence In other news… ON THE SHELVES THE WELL @GSW, the health and wellness capability of GSW Worldwide, supports brands and companies by providing marketers with a deep understanding of different states of health and how wellness decisions are made. Brian Heffernan, founding partner of The Well @GSW and chief marketing officer for GSW Worldwide, notes that prevention and healthy behavioral choices are critical components of the new healthcare equation. “The Well @GSW was created in part because we understand that in order to be effective, people need education, motivation, and support beyond a doctor visit," Mr. Heffernan says. The Well @GSW offers a flexible service model that includes counsel on strategic issues and program design that leverages proprietary research, workshops, and tools; content that goes beyond syndicated wellness information to curate and create original content of value to stakeholders; and communications that help clients connect across stakeholders and effectively tell their wellness story to consumers. The Well @GSW team includes GSW’s Pink Tank, specialists in understanding how women make wellness decisions for themselves and their families. “For the individual or family with no health concerns, wellness is the choice of better-for-you foods, exercise, and behaviors that maintain and enhance the health they have," says Pink Tank Founder Marcee Nelson, founding partner and chief creative/content officer for The Well @GSW. In addition to Mr. Heffernan and Ms. Nelson, other founding partners leading The Well @GSW are Scott Page, managing director; Jim Johnson, director, creative innovation; and Gretchen Goffe, director of strategic planning. Some of the benefits for clients looking to apply a health and wellness lens to brands include: strengthening brand and company perceptions; raising a brand’s profile and access to the healthcare community; understanding how consumers choose their health pathway; and identifying the best way to communicate a brand’s story. { For more information, visit gsw-w.com. Newport Module Provides Biologics Intelligence Thomson Reuters has added a biologics module to its Newport Premium solution to address the dramatic increase in the development of biosimilar drugs, allowing generic drug companies, biotech firms, and manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to assess their own opportunities to enter the biosimilars market or to spot potential competitive activity. The NEWPORT BIOLOGICS MODULE provides manufacturing process data covering biologic drugs, including recombinant proteins, antibodies, factors, and vaccines. Companies considering pursuing biosimilar opportunities can analyze multiple potential biomanufacturing processes for each drug, genetic sequences, process steps, starting materials, and equipment required, as well as review related patents and literature. “Recent legislative changes in the biologics arena have made it a very enticing market to pharmaceutical companies and generics alike," explains Jon Brett-Harris, executive VP at Thomson Reuters. “The Newport Biologics Module enables companies to evaluate this market more comprehensively and identify the right opportunity more easily." { For more information, visit thomsonreuters.com. In other news… CAHG, formerly the Corbett Accel Healthcare Group, has combined its previously independent business units — Accel, Corbett, Iris, Kinect, and Surge — into one integrated, multichannel marketing communications organization. CAHG CEO Scott Cotherman notes that clients have stressed their desire for a seamless agency approach to their brands, as well as full integration of service disciplines in the creation and deployment of effective global multichannel marketing programs. “We continue to evolve to meet the demands of an increasingly accountable marketplace for healthcare products and services," Mr. Cotherman says. Mr. Cotherman recently named seven partners to help lead CAHG’s integrated marketing services agency model — Phila Broich, Elaine Eisen, Suri Harris, Dennis Hoppe, Carleen Kelly, Tony Morello, and Robin Shapiro. CAHG is a subsidiary of Omnicom Group. { For more information, visit cahg.com. Universal WorldEvents, the global event management business created from the merger of UniversalProcon and WorldEvents, specializes in serving the healthcare sector from locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and Singapore, as well as a newly established office in Spain. Clients benefit from the increased global reach of the newly merged business, which, while operating internationally, offers local knowledge in delivering services such as venue finding, meeting logistics, on-site staffing, creative services, and group air/ground travel. The business is part of parent company United Drug’s Sales and Marketing Services (SMMS) division. Former UniversalProcon Managing Director Graham McIntosh is now managing director of Universal WorldEvents, while former WorldEvents CEO Gary Dickinson serves as Universal WorldEvents CEO, Americas, supported by Gavin Houston as VP, operations, Americas. { For more information, visit universalworldevents.com. Global contract research organization Chiltern International has opened a new office in the Netherlands and appointed Angela Pasma as the Netherlands’ country manager. “Having already cultivated positive relationships with clients and colleagues in the region, we look forward to expanding our operations here to further serve our clients’ needs," Ms. Pasma says. { For more information, visit chiltern.com. Topin & Associates, a healthcare communications agency, and Advanced Clinical Concepts (ACC), a medical and scientific communications agency, have joined forces to create a partnership that provides clients with continuity in science-based messaging, creative, and content development. The approach, dubbed the “science bridge," is to help clients create core scientific content that provides continuity throughout the promotional planning phase, from pre-launch market development activities through product launch and lifecycle management. The goal is to link all brand promotion activities — from peer-to-peer programs to sales force promotion to patient communication — to a brand’s scientific core. It’s this link, according to both agencies’ presidents, that drives brand meaning and ultimate value for all audiences. The science bridge approach is based upon the allocation of a complementary team of specialists, beginning with strategists from both agencies. ACC then provides a team of medical and clinical experts while Topin provides creative and tactical support. The result is a multidisciplinary group and a seamless process with the goal of translating scientific and clinical data into content that helps brands reach their market potential. “This relationship is a new business approach that aims to help clients bridge the gap that often occurs when companies separate their promotional advertising efforts from their promotional scientific and educational programs," says Al Topin, president of Topin & Associates. “Many pharmaceutical companies have created an unnecessary division between a brand’s on-label medical education and its advertising, resulting in a loss of continuity in brand messaging," adds David Rear, president of ACC. { For more information, visit topin.com or advancedclinical.net. On the shelves Barnett International has released updated versions of three of its pocket-sized reference guides: The latest version of Barnett’s REGULATIONS REFERENCE GUIDE FOR MEDICAL DEVICES provides up-to-date information on key device regulations. Regulations listed in the updated guide include Title 21 – Food and Drugs; Good Clinical Practice; Medical Devices and Quality Systems; and Product Jurisdiction (Combination Products). The 2011 CFR/ICH GCP REFERENCE GUIDE provides current information on industry codes and regulations for easy reference by clinical and regulatory personnel. This year’s version of the guide includes the FDA Code of Federal Regulations’ all-new section on IND Safety Reports, as well as Good Laboratory Practice, ICH Guidelines Good Clinical Practice and Clinical Safety Data Management, and the European Union Clinical Trials and Good Clinical Practice Directives. The 2011 GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICE QUESTION & ANSWER REFERENCE GUIDE has been expanded beyond its U.S. focus to provide information on GCP issues in the European Union, India, Latin America, and Russia, among other regions. Other new material includes more than 60 additional Q&A pages that address emerging topics such as the use of social media in clinical trials and the implications of IRB reviews of social media content used for patient recruitment, and a new chapter on the priorities and direction of the FDA’s GCP enforcement programs. The 2011 release also includes a fully searchable electronic edition. { For more information, visit barnettinternational.com.
