Imre Bolsters Growing Life Sciences Practice with Health Industry Vet

NEW YORK, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Imre, one of Adweek and MM&M's Top 100 Growing Global Agencies, today added Aish Mercalde, PharmD, MBA, to the team as Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs to lead and expand the agency's Medical Affairs practice. Mercalde is one of several recent senior hires, including Lucia Burchell, Vice President of Brand Strategy & Insights, who joined the team in December 2020 from Epsilon.

Mercalde joins imre from McCann Health New York, where she served as a Scientific Strategy lead across various therapeutic areas. Over the last decade she's honed her vision of healthcare strategy while working for brands across a diverse mix of therapeutic categories, most notably the AstraZeneca respiratory portfolio (Breztri, Fasenra and Symbicort), Aristada, Adakveo, Dupixent and the Sanofi diabetes portfolio. 

"Building belief that gets to the core of how people feel is at the center of everything we do, both for our clients as well as for our client partner's customers, and we see Aish as a perfect fit for steering the direction of our Medical and Scientific Affair practice to reach these critical audiences," said Jeff Smokler, Partner and President of imre Health. "We're so glad to welcome Aish at such an exciting time for the agency and for the personal and professional experience she brings."

At imre, Mercalde will be responsible for growing the Medical Affairs practice including further shaping the regulatory affairs process across client teams; providing internal and client-facing counsel on medical related strategy; as well as medical storytelling and development of effective scientific and educational content for DTC and HCP marketing, among other duties.

Mercalde's passion for healthcare stems from childhood experiences, growing up in Zambia. She witnessed her parents on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, as importers of pharmaceutical generics to the country, which Mercalde cites as majorly influential in pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. 

"So much has changed in healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing, including channels for patients and physicians, over the past decade," said Mercalde. "I've always been motivated by the crucial role that medical and healthcare strategy plays in the marketing mix and I'm so excited to show the types of tangible results imre offers our client partners."

Imre works with many of the world's leading and high growth brands. Driven by innovation, the agency's integrated suite of marketing and communications services include Brand Strategy, Creative, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Public Relations and Media, Data & Analytics. Through its orchestrated ideas model, imre partners with a diversified and growing portfolio of brands inside and outside of life sciences, some of whom include Airstream, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, BioCryst, John Deere, GSK, Pfizer, and Infiniti, among others.

The agency maintains offices in New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Philadelphia. imre is an LGBTQ-founded and NGLCC-certified diverse supplier. 

To learn more about imre or to consider joining the team, please visit: www.imre.com/careers.

SOURCE imre

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