The expansion will see seven additional PhDs move into the company’s new space in New York City as well as three lead executives take residence in Tokyo, Elaine Ferguson, Global Managing Director of iMC (inVentiv Medical Communications) told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
The new staff members in New York City were formerly part of Noveida Health and will be led by John LaPolla, who holds degrees in microbiology from Cornell University and in biochemistry from Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Tokyo operations will be led by Aya Tokaji as Director of Scientific Services.
The Tokyo office is also inVentiv’s second location in Asia and comes 18 months after the company opened an office in Shanghai, Ferguson said. She said the work in Tokyo will be focused on more local clients that expect the same focus the company has offered to its global partners.
Earlier this month, the China office won a contract to provide an unidentified pharmaceutical client with assistance in understanding China’s oncology landscape and support at an upcoming medical meeting on oncology. The new Tokyo office will help with these operations.
inVentiv’s new office in New York will also supplement its integrated communications business there, which includes public relations, advertising and media planning teams. “This will be part of the overall hub we offer to help us to deliver integrated solutions to clients,” Ferguson said.
But the latest offerings in medical communications should not be seen as a sign that the company is devoting less resources to the clinical side of its business, Ferguson noted.
“Medical communications is a real linchpin for inVentiv and is part of the company that can work across all departments,” she said, adding that the focus is on peer-to-peer communications between health professionals, which “has a lot of potential to collaborate with clinical teams.”
iMC's other offices are located in London, Munich, Paris, Dallas and Philadelphia.