InVentiv Health Communications (iMC) expanded its brainpower’s reach to include New York and Tokyo, adding to existing locations in Dallas, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Munich and Shanghai.
The new offices give inVentiv what it calls the “industry’s largest global network of experts in peer-to-peer medical and scientific communications.”
IMC parent inVentiv Health has been on a roll of sorts, having combined four digital shops into two this past spring to create GSW/Fueled by Blue Diesel, and Ignite + Palio. The former put GSW/Fueled by Blue Diesel on par with the girth of rivals like Ogilvy CommonHealth, CDM and AbelsonTaylor.
IMC was formed last year by the fusion of three existing inVentiv med-comms agencies, Cadent and Selva in Dallas and Litmus in Europe, and was then bolstered by new agencies and teams in key locations. It provides advisory board strategies, as well as medical content, and creates events that connect physicians, nurses and other HCPs.
Elaine Ferguson, inVentiv global managing director based in London, told MM&M that the network chose New York as a location in order to put medical expertise in close proximity to PR, digital and consulting shops.
Having multiple skill sets within easy reach of clients, as the network has done in Europe, “has brought additional value to clients,” she said. “We can work together as an integrated team.”
As for the Tokyo opening, Ferguson said it builds on inVentiv’s presence in the world’s second-largest healthcare market. Further, she said a local shop just made sense because, “We’ve seen medical communications as a key driver for communications business within Japan.”
The Tokyo team’s starter project involves working in conjunction with iMC’s China office, which won a contract to help a global pharma account learn the local oncology space while providing support at an upcoming oncology meeting.
From the September 01, 2013 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
