June 2020 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 14
// AGENCY NEWS //
Spirit teams with Apos on med device
Market access consultancy Spirit Access is partnering with global medical device company Apos Medical Assets to help clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS Trusts improve health outcomes with an innovative treatment for patients with chronic knee conditions.
According to the firms, the AposTherapy programme – a medical device designed to improve body mechanics and muscular coordination – can postpone or even prevent knee replacement surgeries, with 87% of patients reportedly able to avoid surgery during the first year of treatment.
As a result, one mid-size CCG achieved estimated savings of £3,330 per patient, but additional costs from reducing the need for outpatient visits, radiology, injections and opioid use may also be realised, the firms noted.
Spirit Access is working with Apos on a risk-share model for CCGs and Trusts ‘based on the substantial collateral cost savings associated with improved management of long-term conditions such as osteoarthritis of the knee by decreasing the need for total knee replacement surgeries’. The partnership’s model has already been successfully trialled with three CCGs, with plans for a national roll-out underway, the firms said.
“Working with Spirit Access, experts in patient pathway analysis, we have been able to use UK NHS data (hospital episode statistics) to explore key issues within the pathway – such as demand and waiting times – to hone our business model in the UK,” said Cliff Bleustein, Apos’ global president and chief executive.
Prime Global expands med comms offering
Prime Global, the international medical communications and market access group, has acquired Cambridge Medical Communication, an independent medical communications agency based near Cambridge, UK.
The move sees the firm join Prime Global’s existing group of six agencies and two consultancies to deliver medical communications ‘focusing on scientific excellence coupled with innovative execution’.
“Not only is this the next step of our ongoing and successful growth plan, acquiring Cambridge strengthens our scientific excellence, allowing us to establish a new office near the city of Cambridge, one of the largest centres for scientific research in Europe, and also to expand our European client base,” said Graeme Peterson, Prime Global’s chairman and chief executive.
“Becoming part of Prime Global will provide our staff and our clients with additional resources, including access to specialised in-house teams, such as Creative, Digital, and Strategy,” added Jenny Muiry, who founded Cambridge Medical Communication in 1998. “With our shared commitment to deliver excellence and maintain long-lasting relationships with our clients, I look forward to working alongside Graeme and the rest of the Prime Global team.”
imc partners
with Waterland
to fuel expansion
Global healthcare communications agency imc (integrated medhealth communication) group has received what it describes as a ‘substantial investment’ from new partner Waterland Private Equity, boosting its plans to be a leading independent provider of global healthcare communications and consulting to the pharmaceutical industry.
The company said Waterland will support expansion of its global footprint through ‘a buy-and-build strategy with significant follow-on funding available to acquire and build out healthcare communications, digital and consulting agencies across the UK, North America and EMEA’.
The investment will also be used to add further capabilities and service offerings, enhancing the firm’s existing capabilities, and to execute a series of strategic initiatives to ‘better serve clients, attract further talent and enrich the lives of patients by delivering human-centric programmes that inform decisions to improve health’.