Informed Medical Communications and IC Axon Merge Creating a Full Complement of Training and Marketing Services

EDISON, N.J., March 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Informed Medical Communications (IMC), a leading provider of peer-to-peer medical forums, training services, and integrated medical communications for the biopharmaceutical industry, and IC Axon, an industry-recognized leader in the design and development of training programs for the healthcare industry, today announced the merger of the two organizations. The combined enterprise will offer a full suite of sales and leadership training, Key Opinion Leader skills development, and medical communications services for the domestic and global biopharmaceutical/medical device industries. This includes medical content development, workshop design and execution, as well as multichannel pull-through programs with highly interactive peer meetings.  

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Steven K. Budd, IMC's CEO commented, "This merger will create a formidable training company that offers the full continuum of services from multimedia curricula design and content development to elite skills training anchored in our proven model for influencing customers through dialogue.  In addition, IMC's medical communications capabilities will be significantly enhanced by the addition of IC Axon's team and their expertise in developing customized, engaging medical content."  With growing challenges facing bio-pharmaceutical organizations, IMC and IC Axon executives believe the combined capabilities will provide their healthcare company customers with more comprehensive training and marketing solutions that improve business outcomes and efficiency of spend. Carole Gins, General Manager IC Axon / Dialogue Training and newly appointed President of IMC summarizes, "We are excited by the merger with IMC, as we believe IMC's unique DialogueTraining(SM) framework for enhancing sales and promotional impact and their team of expert trainers and workshop facilitators provides the perfect complement to IC Axon's core competency in the design, development, and production of high-impact training programs. We are confident that our respective clients will benefit from the combined training and medical communications capabilities of IC Axon and Informed Medical Communications. "

IMC and IC Axon will continue to operate out of their current locations in Edison, NJ and Montreal, QC, respectively.  IC Axon was advised by Fairmount Partners, a specialty investment bank based outside of Philadelphia, and IMC was advised by Excel Partners, based in New York City.

About Informed Medical Communications

Informed Medical Communications (www.informedmedical.com), headquartered in Edison, NJ, is an interactive medical marketing group of companies providing services to the biopharmaceutical industry. The companies include The Peer Group and RxDialogue, industry innovators and leaders in conducting peer-to-peer medical programs and delivering integrated medical communications.  Additionally, IMC's major businesses are enhanced by DialogueTraining, a communications training service for elite skill development for sales organizations and speaker bureaus. The IMC network of companies delivers integrated marketing programs for pharmaceutical marketers, with the goal of improving the dialogue among healthcare practitioners in understanding health conditions and their medical options. IMC is a private-equity backed, privately held company.

About IC Axon

IC Axon (www.icaxon.com) is a recognized leader in the healthcare training industry, specializing in the design and development of clinically focused training programs for domestic and global pharmaceutical, bio-pharma, and medical device clients. IC Axon offers a wide range of custom education programs and formats tailored to the business and training needs of sales representatives, sales leadership, marketing, and medical teams. Over the past 16 years, IC Axon has reinforced its core competencies in instructional design consulting, medical/clinical content development, medical illustration/graphics creation, technology innovation, and professional project management. Based in Montreal, IC Axon continues to provide innovative and medically valid foundational, launch, and advanced training programs for many of the top pharmaceutical companies in the US and globally.

SOURCE Informed Medical Communications