Lasso

IQVIA’s acquisiton of PMI is unlikely to go ahead following the FTC’s injunction. Photo: OleksSH/Shutterstock. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been granted a temporary injunction against health tech giant IQVIA’s acquisition of digital advertising company Propel Media and its healthcare marketing subsidiary DeepIntent due to fears it may lead to anti-competitive practices. IQVIA, known for its clinical trial and healthcare information provision, looked to purchase Propel in July of last year. Shortly after, the FTC sought to block the deal, citing concerns over DeepIntent’s programmatic drug marketing business. The body argued that the acquisition would incentivise IQVIA to “withhold key information to prevent rival companies and potential entrants from effectively competing.” IQVIA already has its own marketing platform, Lasso Marketing, which together with DeepIntent makes up two of the three top providers of drug advertising aimed at healthcare professionals. This alone was cause for concern for the FTC, but it was compounded by IQVIA’s status as the purveyor of “gold standard” datasets of provider identity and prescribing behaviour. Judge Edgardo Ramos’ 29 December ruling in the Southern District Court of New York agreed with the FTC, granting a preliminary injunction. A spokesperson for IQVIA told Reuters : “We maintain that the FTC’s arguments in this case are inconsistent with the reality of the marketplace and unsupported by the law.” DeepIntent’s CEO previously said that the company would walk away from the deal should the FTC’s block stand, making it unlikely to come to fruition. The parties may also be wary of engaging in a lengthy legal battle following the high-profile failure of diagnostics company Illumina to defend its acquisition of Grail against the FTC’s wishes. The value of the acquisition has not been announced, but IQVIA is no stranger to expensive deals. In 2021 it acquired the remaining 40% of Q2 Solutions, a clinical trials laboratory services organization, for $760m. Many of the company’s other deals have an undisclosed value, including its 2022 acquisition of Lasso. The company is however able to raise hundreds of millions in public debt offerings, predominantly to pay off its previous bond issuances. Our signals coverage is powered by GlobalData’s Thematic Engine , which tags millions of data items across six alternative datasets — patents, jobs, deals, company filings, social media mentions and news — to themes, sectors and companies. These signals enhance our predictive capabilities, helping us to identify the most disruptive threats across each of the sectors we cover and the companies best placed to succeed.

Moderna is joining Pfizer in promoting updated Covid-19 vaccines for the fall in a TV campaign. Moderna’s effort is relatively smaller compared to Pfizer’s pharma-leading spending on NFL football games. However, the new Moderna campaign has a similar core message around “updated” boosters. The short 15-second TV ad features a snappy, upbeat rhythmic soundtrack and mostly text graphics on brightly colored screens. “We’re all sick of Covid-19,” the opening text screen reads, following up with “But no one wants to get sick with Covid-19, either.” The ad goes on to note that updated boosters that protect against multiple Covid variants are now available, adding its now-signature tagline: “Make it yours.” Genentech’s Futurelab+ doubles down on equity and diversity in STEM education Roche’s Genentech is expanding its South San Francisco Futurelab partnership into Futurelab+ and the commitment of another $10 million to educate the next generation of STEM students in south San Francisco. Futurelab+ includes a new, free high school biotech curriculum that can be run in classrooms without expensive lab equipment, new support and resources for educators in low-income districts and a volunteer network that connects classrooms and industry professionals including some of the STEM field employees at Genentech. It was developed in a collaboration with Discovery Education. The goal of the project is to address inequities in the classroom, Genentech said in a press statement , noting that only 35% of high schools in the US offer biotech classes and typically only at higher household income school districts. Ragnar von Schiber who heads corporate citizenship and engagement and the K-12 STEM education initiatives at Genentech, said, “We heard from teachers that they needed more than just lab-heavy lesson plans that rely on expensive equipment. With Futurelab+, we set out to create project-based, cutting-edge tools that make biotechnology real, hands-on and relevant to students of all backgrounds — without a huge cost to schools.” Gilead pledges post-hurricane donation to support people with HIV and at-risk in Puerto Rico Gilead Sciences donated half a million dollars to AIDS United’s Relief, Recovery and Resilience Fund this week. The funds are earmarked to help local organizations in Puerto Rico that are helping people who live with or are vulnerable to HIV in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. With the hurricane’s widespread destruction, AIDS United said the grants will be used for help with housing, safe food and water, medicine and access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Gilead has worked with the group before to offer help dating back to 2017 following hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and later in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pharma and health agencies team up with IBM Watson for ‘hyper personalized’ media campaigns CMI Media Group and Lasso inked a deal with IBM Watson’s advertising accelerator for the first-ever move into pharma and healthcare. The IBM accelerator uses artificial intelligence “to predict and serve ad units in real-time with the creative elements that are likely to drive action among each audience,” the partners said in a press release . CMI has already run a test campaign combining Watson’s AI with Lasso’s health marketing and analytics from the fourth quarter last year through the end of February — with exceptional results. Working with ViiV Healthcare’s Dovato brand, they used the new smart targeting and analytics to reach out to a variety of healthcare providers involved in diagnosing and treating HIV. The results? A 151% increase in conversion rate to the brand’s site and a 40% increase in the clickthrough rate compared to previous campaigns.