inVentiv agrees to buy SDI from IMS in bid to boost analytics offering
The buyout – a deal inked with pending SDI owner IMS Health, who has promised to divest the audit sections of the business – will add never-before-seen services to inVentiv’s market research and analysis subsidiary Campbell Alliance.
Now, in addition to custom quantitative research, qualitative market research, and key opinion leader identification capabilities, the company’s new offering includes reviews for physician meeting and events, ePromotions, professional journals, and sample distribution.
Nader Naeymi-Rad, CEO of Campbell Alliance, told Outsourcing-Pharma: “These auditsare designed to help pharmaceutical and biotech companies better understand their markets and make better business decisions.”
Campbell Alliance now hopes its more comprehensive services will launch it to the big leagues in the world of syndicated promotional audits.
Naeymi-Rad added: “SDI offers subscription-based audits across nine different areas, nearly all of which are additive to the existing offerings of Campbell Alliance’s current market research and analytics group.
“These new audits, when combined with our existing offerings, will immediately make Campbell Alliance one of the leading providers of syndicated promotional audits.”
He said the company’s consulting teams would also benefit from the more powerful information tools at hand from SDI.
Acquisition spree
The latest deal marks inVentiv’s fourth sizeable acquisition in less than a year.
In June the firm announced its takeover bid of Campbell Alliance as well as pharma and biotech contract research organisation (CRO) i3. A month later it took over drug development services business, PharmaNet.
At the time CEO Paul Meister said the purchases were part of a strategy to realign into three operating units: clinical, consulting and commercial.
Following the SDI acquisition, Outsourcing-Pharma questioned whether there was a pattern to these acquisitions. Meister replied: “inVentiv Health is building a company that offers integrated end-to-end services for customers across the spectrum of clinical, commercial and consulting services.”
He said the company will offer best-in-class services in each of their diverse speciality areas.
Of the SDI bid, Meister added: “The acquisition of these SDI businesses is an important step in boosting inVentiv’s capabilities in market research and analytics.
“Added to our leading consulting services, these additional capabilities allow us to provide a more comprehensive offering that augments our healthcare clients’ business decision-making.”
