With more than $7 billion of committed assets, Arsenal Capital Partners was known to have plenty of ammunition on hand for healthcare acquisitions. And the private equity firm just deployed some more of it on another M&A deal, for market-access agency Cyan Health.

The purchase of Montclair, New Jersey-based Cyan, announced Wednesday, marks the fourth acquisition for the PE firm’s value demonstration platform, and comes barely a month after its buyout of Guidemark Health. The purchase price was not disclosed.

There are no layoffs associated with the deal, Arsenal said. Cyan will retain its branding, for now, and Amber Gilbert, Cyan’s managing director, will report to Rebecca Hyde, Arsenal COO and GM of its value, access and outcomes global practice.

Arsenal’s other two health acquisitions were health economics consultancy BresMed Health Solutions and med affairs shop Cello Health, both in 2020. 

“Being able to put together a strong health economics capability, which we have through BresMed, with a strong payer communications capability in Cyan is powerful,” said Jon Williams, CEO of Arsenal’s value demonstration business. 

The “marriage,” as he put it, is aimed at strengthening Arsenal’s U.S. footprint while assisting Cyan in growing capabilities in Europe as it taps Arsenal’s already deep bench in medical creative and digital and therapeutic area expertise.

“BresMed has those [European] relationships and understands the needs and requirements of the HTA [health technology assessment] agencies in Europe in a way that Cyan can benefit from in dealing with their U.S. clients,” explained Hyde.

The other way BresMed complements Cyan, Hyde said, is through its ability to create the health economics models that clients need to demonstrate the value of the innovations they’re bringing to market.

Indeed, Gilbert said BresMed’s health economics and outcomes research prowess represents an “immediate opportunity” for the firm’s biopharma clients.

“They are leaders in generating evidence, and being able to position health economics information in ways that resonate with payers around the world is very complementary to how we work with our clients,” she noted.

As one example, Gilbert cited the prep work that goes into strategizing for an ICER (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review) health technology assessment. BresMed’s work with those entities “directly influences the type of messaging available to commercial payers in the U.S.,” she explained.

The execs cited culture as a critical ingredient, too. “Our No. 1 criteria in evaluating and deciding to invest in companies is the culture of the company and the quality of the leadership,” said Williams.

Besides qualities like innovation, entrepreneurialism and being highly motivated, Arsenal prioritizes “low ego, humble” companies, he added. “We got that in Guidemark and we got that in Cyan, and that’s really important to us.”

Cyan Health’s revenue rose 36% to $7.5 million in 2020, according to MM+M’s 2021 Agency 100 issue. Current head count sits north of 40 employees, Gilbert reported.

This story has been updated to add excerpts from interviews with Williams and Hyde.