weaknesses of a product’s message,” says Howard Ziment, CEO.“What the Messagez approach does is qualify, or even eliminate, much of that debate so product directors and agencies can spend more time and energy being creative.” The Messagez approach involves several phases.First, it assures the cre ative process starts with the largest set of message elements available. Then it differentiates among these elements using a paired comparison technique to establish a prioritized list of message elements such as product benefits. Critical characteris tics of the product messages, such as appeal, motivation, uniqueness, and believability are separated out using a quantitative decision modeling technique to assess all possible message combinations. The final phase is execution testing, a qualitative measure to determine the most compelling mes sage for the market,which ensures that brand teams are working from the strongest possible message. Ziment, a global pharmaceuti cal and healthcare marketing research agency,has launched Messagez, a market research approach that prioritizes the most believable, unique, and motivating message ele ments.Messagez is the latest addition to Ziment’s suite o f m a r k e t r e s e a rc h approaches for product and busi ness development managers launch ing and repositioning products in the pharmaceutical,biotech, and medical device markets worldwide. The Messagez approach is the company’s proprietary method of building a message platform for a product that is most motivating to its potential cus tomers. The integrated system of information gath ering and systematic testing is designed to produce optimal message platforms. “The messaging process is an area where brand teams and their agency partners have historically invested many hours debating the strengths and Ziment Market Research Tool Produces OPTIMAL MESSAGEPLATFORMS This newapproach to assessing a product’s message canhelp to close the gap between product positioning and creative development. We’ve essentially closed the information gap between product positioning and creative development of the most motivating product message — Howard Ziment, CEO. WHAT’S NEW NEW HEALTHCARERELATED PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND COMPANIES J. Knipper & Co. recently has launched its Adherence and Persistency Program (APP), which is designed for use by pharmaceutical manufacturers to assist consumers and patients to more effectively manage the use of their prescription medications. The APP,a compliance initiative, has a Patient Reminder Kit, which includes a patented Patient Remind Cap. Preliminary studies indicate that patient use of the Patient Remind Cap,a key component of the program,may increase patient usage of medications by 15% to 25% for patients who forget or neglect to take their medica tions on a timely basis. The APP system expands J. Knipper’s current suite of services that includes PDMAcompliant literature and sample fulfillment services exclusively for the pharmaceutical,biotech, and healthcare industries.Their facilities are registered with the FDA and DEA.Other services include direct mail, database management, multifaceted directtoconsumer systems,Webbased surveys,and full crisis and recall management services. J. Knipper Program INCREASES MEDICATION COMPLIANCE GlobalWorks Group has launched Hispanic Works, a new division focused on marketing and advertising to Hispanics.William Ortiz, formerly VP of diverse markets at JP Morgan Chase, has been appointed president of the new division. According to GlobalWorks CEO Yuri Radzievsky, the agency’s role in serving the Hispanic market place has expanded dramatically, with clients rang ing from BancoChase.com to Verizon Wireless to Fleet. The launch of HispanicWorks recognizes the company’s growing commitment to clients in this arena. At JP Morgan Chase, Mr. Ortiz spearheaded the institution’s initiative to develop metrics to track acquisition, expansion, and retention of Hispanics in consumer and business segments. GlobalWorks Launches HISPANIC DIVISION PPD Enters MEDICALDEVICE MARKET Through Acquisitions PPD Inc. has entered into agree ments to acquire two related compa nies, Eminent Research Systems Inc. and Clinsights Inc., for $25 million in cash. Both companies provide services to the medicaldevice industry. Founded six years ago, Eminent Research Systems provides a full range of clinicaltrial services to medical device companies, including a number of cardiovascular device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies devel oping adjunctive therapies. Services include study design, regulatory con sulting, global trial management, data management and biostatistics,and doc umentation development. Clinsights, formed in 2000 by Emi nent Research Systems, provides a range of postmarketing services to medical device and pharma companies and operates Websites for the dissemination of medical information, online market research,and product marketing services. “We believe the medicaldevice industry in gen eral,and the interventional cardiology market specif ically, offers substantial growthopportunities,and we look forward to completing the acquisitions and continuing to build the businesses and programs they have established within the medicaldevice industry,” says Fred Eshelman,CEO of PPD. Fred Eshelman says the acquisition of Eminent Research Systems and Clinsights expands PPD’s portfolio, provides immediate entry into the medicaldevice market, and strengthens its existing cardiovascular franchise. 83 PharmaVOICE S e p t e m b e r 20 03 WHAT’S new AXIS Healthcare Communications ESTABLISHES STRATEGIC CONSULTANCY AXIS Healthcare Communications LLC has created a new con sultancy to provide strat egy research, valuation, planning, and commer cialization services to the healthcare industry. Prescription for Strategy LLC (Rx4S) pro vides strategic opportu nity assessment, mar keting research, and comme rc i a l i z at i on planning services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology compa nies. “Rx4S provides keen insights and evaluation services for new products, licensing, clinical competitiveness,and copromotion assessments,” says Rx4S President Bill Machtiger. “ To maximize the potential of new therapies,we support our clients by facilitating their strategy, positioning, and targeting messages for optimal scientific/clinical programs.We believe that barriers to success can be removed when a commitment is made to energize conventional decision making and commercializa tion processes and to focus effectively on changing conditions along the way.” Through its diverse client offerings, including the GPS (Global Pharmaceutical Strategy) Map,and with the support of its experienced Ph.D.s, Pharm.D.s, M.D.s, and strategy definition and brand messaging team, Rx4S offers the analysis and evaluation skills that enable clients to be totally focused on compet itively conditioning the market for the drug. Before establishing Rx4S, Mr. Machtiger was senior VP of global client consultant services at IMS Health and functioned as an advisor for the execu tive decision makers of major pharmaceutical com panies. “With the addition of Rx4S to the AXIS family, we are now able to offer clients a complete range of integrated strategic commercialization services that are driven by an understanding of science and mar keting,” says Neil Matheson, CEO of AXIS Healthcare Communications. “ The successful drugs of the future will be designed to meet not only regulatory objectives, but also marketing objectives,” he says. “Under standing the competitive environment at launch, developing an ideal product label, and driving clini cal development to deliver that label will ensure competitive advantage.” AmericasDoctor, a provider of clinicaltrial sites and projectman agement services, has created Essential Patient Recruitment,a busi ness unit formed in response to the pharmaceutical industry’s lack of success in achieving clinicaltrial budget and timeline goals. Essential Patient Recruitment is a customized, lowrisk approach that begins early in the planning and budget cycle and culminates with timely randomization of patients. Essential Patient Recruitment draws upon more than nine years of expe rience in patient recruitment and in site and project management. This experience combined with strong, local relationships with physicians and knowledge of how to attract and randomize patients has allowed AmericasDoctor to achieve patient recruitment suc cess 95% of the time on centrally managed cam paigns. “If a company can’t hit recruitment goals, the clinical trial is in trouble — it’s that simple,”says Lee Jones,CEO of Amer icasDoctor. “That’s why we created Essen tial Patient Recruitment. At AmericasDoc tor, we have a long history of bestinclass site management and some of the most experienced project managers.As wesaw the challenges in patient recruitment evolve, we used our experience to fix what we knew could be fixed and devel oped Essential Patient Recruitment.” Essential Patient Recruitment employs databasemanagement tools coupled with predictive forecasting models and creative marketing strate gies and media outreach to help deliver results with realtime return on invest ment. The Essential Patient Recruitment team has experience in both centrally managed and local pro grams, successfully completing more than 600 total projects and 60 (39 since 2000) centrally managed patientrecruitment projects on clinical trials. CommonHealth has formed Solara, a new business unit created to provide strategic marketing services to help improve patient access to pharmaceutical brands competing in managed markets. With offices in New York and Parsippany, N.J., Solara works with clients to understand,expand,and optimize access by leveraging clinical andeco nomic evidence to communicate the value of a pharmaceutical brand. Overseeing all Solara efforts are senior VPs and managing directors Patrick Beers and Mary Alice Lawless. Before joining Solara,Mr. Beers and Ms. Lawless founded and managed Customer Focused Strategies LLC, a managedcare marketing group in New York. “Managed markets stakeholders represent an important communica tions channel for pharmaceutical marketers,” Ms. Lawless says. “With the expansive resources of CommonHealth behind Solara, we can confident ly deliver the innovative and comprehensive solutions our clients need to achieve access goals.” AmericasDoctor Forms PATIENT RECRUITMENTBusiness Unit CommonHealth Launches SOLARA Patrick Beers and Mary Alice Lawless are heading up CommonHealth’s new business unit, Solara. According to Lee Jones, CEO of AmericasDoctor, Essential Patient Recruitment was developed as the company observed the challenges in patient recruitment evolve. Bill Machtiger, a pharmaceutical industry executive with more than 20 years experience, heads up AXIS Healthcare’s strategic consultancy. The RedPoint Group has added PVA Interactive to its business.The creative team focuses on helping busi nesses deliver the right message and choose the right combination of platforms and mediums that deliver that message successfully. PVA Interactive is an alternative to traditional ad agencies and design firms. PVA stands for Pursuing Visual Alternatives and has beendeveloped to better meet the needs of today’s marketing communication demands. “We have been working with PVA for a few months now and the company can push communication to its best potential,” says Drew Patrick, cofounder and partner with the RedPoint Group. “PVA offers threedimen sional modeling and animation that can really assist lifesciences companies in better telling their stories by describing the processes and applications visually.” The RedPoint Group Adds 3D MODELING ANDANIMATION Capabilities 84 S e p t e mb e r 2003 PharmaVOICE WHAT’S new Medifacts International and MDACI Form DEVICE PARTNERSHIP Medifacts International has initiated a collaborative effort with Medical Device Auditing and Consulting Inc. (MDACI) and its affiliate CardioMed Device Consultants LLC to provide onestop shopping for device companies looking for a comprehensive solution for their device development needs — from device concept to postmarket support. By leveraging its extensive FDA regulatory and quality systems experience, MDACI and CardioMed Device Consultants provide comprehensive consulting and auditing services to the medicaldevice community.The partnership’s com bined experience includes regulatory strategy, quality systems,design and pro cess validation,clinicaltrial development and management,and postmarketing compliance. Clients receive knowledgeable guidance from a device develop ment team that is highly proactive,and this enables them to anticipate FDA and marketplace requirements. Three pharmaceutical marketing executives have launched a new agency. Rich Levy, Bob Kar czewski, and Jeff Lipman have launched Integrity Healthcare Communications,which is under the cor porate umbrella of the HealthSTAR Communications network. Mr. Levy, former CEO of AdairGreene Inc. and HCPro Acquisition Expands Portfolio to Include NURSE AIDE TRAINING MATERIALS HCPro Inc.’s acquisition of the assets of Educational Plan ning Services Corp. (EPSCO) allows the company to expand into a new market — nursing training. “Acquiring EPSCO’s out standing publications allows HCPro to expand into the nursing assistant training mar ket and offer more resources for staff trainers,” says Bruce Guzowski,president and CEO of HCPro. “ This acquisition aligns perfectly with our aggressive growth objectives for the healthcare training market.” EPSCO publishes training materials and manuals used by nurses, aides, and nurse managers in nursing homes, hospitals, and home healthcare agencies. The primary title pub lished by EPSCO is Program Plans, Nursing Basic Series, which began in 1979 and is a recognized leader in the industry. Program Plans, Nursing Basic Series is a monthly newsletter for staff trainers to help with nursing assistant training. Melanie Roberts, currently the editor of several of HCPro’s newsletters, has been named editor. VETERANFORMED STARTUP AGENCY Launched Under HealthSTAR Network president of its healthcare division, was brought into the HealthSTAR network to head the advertising group and serve as president of the agency. Mr. Karczewski, who has a 20year track record in the industry and is a registered pharmacist, is executive VP and general manager of Integrity. Mr.Lipman is executive VP and cre ative director. “Because of numerous recent mergers and acquisitions, many other agencies have lost a lot of their senior talent,” Mr.Levy says.“While Integrity is a fully staffed, fullservice agency, we plan to make sure we always have a senior executive on every account.” Mr. Karczewski describes Integrity as an agency with a focus on personal service and customized campaigns.Clients, he says, can now mix and match the services they need to get the best results. According to Bruce Guzowski, HCPro’s recent acquisition aligns with the company’s growth objectives for the healthcare training market. This is the first time Medifacts can provide a total solution to our device clients. We are confident that our clients now receive the expert guidance they need to navigate the FDA regulatory and approval process. — Vincent Lagrotteria, executive director of sales and marketing at Medifacts. DCI Launches SEPARATE HEALTHCARE UNIT DCI, a producer of hightech trade shows, has launched DCI Health, a dedicated healthcare industry con ference and exhibition company.The new division has been formed in response to the rapid and significant growth in market demand for such events during the past few years. Led by a steering committee of distinguished clinicians, business executives, academics,and policy makers, DCI Health uses DCI’s extensive tradeshow experience and knowledge to design focused events with a mul tidisciplinary approach to address business, medicine, life sciences, and policy. Elizabeth Cutler has been named managing director of DCI Health and oversees the research,develop ment, and production of events for DCI Health. She formerly was VP of the National Managed Health Care Congress (NMHCC),general manager at Cambridge Healthtech Institute, and creator of the Disease Manage ment Congress and the Congress on Medicaid and Medicare. MD Net Guide Launches MEN’S HEALTH PUBLICATION Intellisphere LLC, publisher of the MD Net Guide journal series,has addeda new title to its specialized “focus edition” portfolio of publications. The multi sponsored publication,MD Net Guide:Focus on Men’s Health, is a quarterly journal that launched this month. International Society for Men’s Health is the jour nal’s health advocacy partner and is lending exper tise to the editorial content of the journal. The group’s president, Siegfried Meryn, M.D., has been named as the first member of the publication’s edi torial board. Rich Levy, Bob Karczewski, Jeff Lipman have joined forces to launch Integrity Healthcare Communications. 85 PharmaVOICE S e p t e m b e r 20 03 group of healthcare professionals who must bring the research findings from bench to bedside,” says editorinchief Dr. Jamie H. Von Roenn, professor of medicine at The Robert H.Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. The Journal of Supportive Oncology, published six times a year, focuses on symptom management, communication issues, and endoflife care for patients with cancer. Each issue presents peerreviewed research articles on symptom manage ment to advance the science, a scientifically based article to understand the pathophysiologic mechanism of symptoms,and reviews with peer commentary on supportive oncology topics. Biolink Communications Inc., which was formed early this year, has launched its first publication,The Journal of Supportive Oncology. The new journal publishes articles related to practical issues in the palliative and supportive care of patients with neoplastic diseases. The content of the journal is relevant to the clinical problems faced by the practicing oncology professional. It is sent free of charge to more than 28,500 physicians and nurses in the oncology specialties, bringing important messages about supportive care to the key oncology audience — physicians and nurses who are administering handson care to patients with cancer. “If we are to truly integrate supportive and palliative oncology into the care of all oncology patients, from diagnosis to cure and beyond or death, it is this WHAT’S new BIOLINK COMMUNICATIONS INC., Huntington,N.Y., is the publisher of The Journal of Supportive Oncology. For more information, visit supportiveoncology.net/guide.html. CLINSIGHTS INC., NewYork,offers Inter netbased, postmarket services to enhance the marketing effectiveness of medicaldevice companies.For more infor mation,visit clinsights.com. DCI HEALTH,Andover,Mass.,a wholly owned subsidiary of DCI, is a healthcare conference and exhibition company serving the professional and consumer markets.For more information,visit dci.com. EMINENT RESEARDCH SYSTEMS INC., Rockville, Md., helps medicaldevice companies achieve success with their projects.For more information, visit eminentresearch.com ESSENTIAL PATIENT RECRUITMENT, Gurnee, Ill., a business unit of Americas Doctor, is a leading provider of patient recruitment and clinical site and project management services. For more information,visit essentialpatrec.com. GLOBALWORKS,NewYork, is an advertising agency focused on multicultural and mainstream markets. For more information,visit globalworks.com. HCPRO INC.,Marblehead,Mass.,meets the specialized information,advisory, and education needs of the healthcare industry by providing needtoknow information Follow up pharma,biotech,and medicaldevice communities.For more information,visit medifacts.com. PPD INC.,Wilmington,N.C., is a global provider of discovery and development services and products for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.For more information, visit ppdi.com. PRESCRIPTION FOR STRATEGY LLC , Yardley,Pa., is a subsidiary of AXIS Healthcare Communications LLC,which provides a full spectrum of healthcare communications services through its strategic consultancy,medical communications, medical education,and healthcare advertising agencies. For more information, email Bill Machtiger at [email protected]. THEREDPOINTGROUP,Pittsburgh,offers customized sales and marketing solutions for lifesciences companies.For more information, visit theredpointgroup.com. SOLARA,NewYork,Parisppany,N.J., is a unit of CommonHealth,a healthcare communications resource and a WPP Group company. For more information, visit commonhealth.com. ZIMENT,NewYork,a fullservice consultancy offering custom marketing research for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries worldwide, is the global healthcare research brand for The Kantar Group, the information and consultancy division of WPP Plc. For more information,visit ziment.com. products to the healthcare industry in a variety of formats and media, including newsletters, books, videos,audio conferences, and online courses.For more information,visit hcpro.com. INTEGRITY HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATIONS,Woodbridge,N.J., is a healthcare communications company that offers a unique structure providing an allencompassing range of media and communications vehicles. Integrity is a unit of The HealthSTAR group. For more information, visit integrityhcc.com. INTELLISPHERE LLC,Plainsboro, N.J., is the publisher of MD Net Guide,Oncology net guide,and related journals.For more information, visit mdnetguide.com. J. KNIPPER &CO.,Lakewood, N.J., is dedicated to providing a wide variety of directmail,fulfillment, database, teleservices, and recall services for the healthcare industry.For more information,visit knipper.com. MEDICAL DEVICE AUDITING AND CONSULTING INC.,Darnestown,Md.,and its affiliate CardioMed Device Consultants, Gambrills,Md.,are independent consulting groups staffed by former Food and Drug Administration employees with extensive premarket and postmarket device experience. For more information,visit mdaci.com and cardiomedllc.com. MEDIFACTS INTERNATIONAL,Rockville,Md., is a global CRO focused on cardiovascular, renal,pulmonary, stroke, and metabolic clinicaldevelopment programs for the Biolink’s New Oncology Journal Targets SUPPORTIVETHERAPIES
