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Envision Pharma Group acquires Curo Consulting Ltd

Curo specializes in enabling biopharma companies to communicate with payers, policy makers, and providers ‘in their language’ and notably, Curo won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International Trade in 2015, the UK’s highest accolade for business success. Curo’s Chairman, Jonathan Mowll, and CEO, Christopher O’Neill, will continue to drive Curo’s operations and will join Envision’s management team.

The acquisition was supported by Envision’s equity partners – Ardian, the independent private investment company, and GHO Capital, the specialist European investor in healthcare. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Operating globally, Envision is a leading partner to Medical Affairs organizations, providing scientific data communication services and industry standard technology solutions to biopharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Envision’s unique position within the growing market of outsourced Medical Affairs services, including value-oriented communications, is underpinned by integrating scientific and industry expertise with a range of purpose-built technology solutions that facilitate planning, knowledge-sharing, operational excellence, and decision-making.

Curo’s core skill set in creating effective Market Access strategies, delivered in an innovative and compelling manner, will bolster Envision’s existing Market Access solutions and complement the group’s wider range of services – including medical writing, publication planning, medical communications, and operational excellence consultancy.

Similarly, Curo’s HEOR and Market Access software will complement Envision’s extensive range of industry-leading technology solutions (Datavision®, Library™, Visiontracker®, Clear®, Medinfo™ and Visiontracker HEOR™). Curo’s state-of-the-art applications – LENS™, which dynamically matches key data sets with payer needs, and Evidence Navigator™, which facilitates value narratives tailored to the needs of different payer archetypes – will be valuable additions to Envision’s range of technology solutions and provide an essential toolkit for our Market Access clients.

Envision's CEO, Brian Hepburn, commented, "The addition of Curo to the Envision Pharma Group augments our existing Market Access capabilities and further cements our core tenet of marrying expertise and technology to become the leading international Medical Affairs agency. In the current biopharma landscape, value demonstration is an essential part of the evidence communication package. Curo’s consulting expertise and software products will ensure that we offer optimal evidence communication strategies to our clients.”

Curo CEO, Christopher O’Neill, stated, “We are absolutely delighted to become part of Envision. Curo has spent the past 3 years building and proving the impact of a series of innovative digital platforms to support Value Curation in HEOR and Market Access. In Envision, we have found a partner with the same commitment to combining services with supporting technology. Philosophically, this is incredibly important. Practically, the size and reach of the Envision group will give us the opportunity to build out a scalable infrastructure which will enable us to service our clients with more comprehensive end-to-end Value Curation solutions.”

About Envision
Founded in 2001, Envision Pharma is an international, innovative global technology and scientific communication company serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Initially focusing on re-inventing the way biopharma companies managed their global data communications programs through the use of smart technology and best-in-class publication planning, Envision has evolved to become a leading provider of evidence communication services and Medical Affairs solutions encompassing all aspects of scientifically driven data dissemination activities required to support a successful access to market strategy for new biopharma compounds.

This capability of the organization is further enhanced with industry-leading, complementary technology solutions across the Medical Affairs responsibilities. Envision has grown steadily under consistent leadership across its three core business areas in support of the Medical Affairs team that include (i) Evidence Communication – including strategic publication planning, data dissemination services, medical education, and Market Access communications; (ii) Technology Solutions – design, development, implementation, and support of innovative and strategic management software, purpose-built for life-science clients, including, publication planning and management (Datavision®), clearance approval (Clear®), activity request management (Visiontracker®), workflow management for HEOR activities (Visiontracker HEORTM), searchable repository for the sharing of appropriate educational and training materials (LibraryTM), and next-generation solution for managing medical information enquiries (MedinfoTM); (iii) Consulting Solutions – policy, process, compliance, and guideline consultancy to life-science companies.

Envision currently has ten offices, three in the United Kingdom – Horsham, Wilmslow, and London; five in the United States – Philadelphia, PA, Southport, CT, Madison, NJ, Stirling, NJ, Glastonbury, CT; and two in Asia Pacific – Tokyo and Sydney. The company employs approximately 500 team members, including over 200 highly qualified and experienced in-house medical writers and a more than 80-strong technology solutions team providing platform development and customer support. Envision currently provides service and product solutions to more than 75 client companies, including 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

About Curo
With over a decade’s experience in the wider consulting industry, Curo offers a new perspective and a different approach to Market Access. Well respected in the industry, we pride ourselves on thinking beyond the usual parameters of the pharma world. True, we have a team of Health Economics experts and specialist software builders, but we are not data processors, nor a software company. Instead, we use our resources to build narratives that speak to Payers and answer their questions; helping you to show that it is value that matters, not cost. Curo are also proud winners of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International Trade, 2015, the UK’s highest accolade for business success.

About Ardian
Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$55bn managed or advised in Europe, North America, or Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty, and entrepreneurship.

Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 410 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, and Luxembourg. The company offers its 470 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes through Ardian Direct Funds (comprising Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth, and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Funds of Funds (comprising primary, early secondary, and secondary activities), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Real Estate, and customized mandate investment solutions with Ardian Mandates.

About GHO Capital
Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, was founded in 2014 as a specialist healthcare investment adviser based in London. Its vision is to apply global capabilities and perspectives to build a world-class healthcare specialist private equity firm by recognising and seizing the highly attractive and underpenetrated European market opportunity. GHO Capital has a powerful combination of transaction, investment, and industry skills which sets it apart from traditional private equity firms. For further information, please visit www.ghocapital.com.

Contact: Trevor Fitzpatrick - Trevor.Fitzpatrick@EnvisionPharma.com

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