SkilaMederi and Qforma Announce Merger

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. and SANTA FE, N.M., June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SkilaMederi, a global life-sciences social analytics strategic solutions and launch optimization provider, and Qforma, a leading provider of advanced analytics and predictive technologies for the life sciences industry, announce their merger. BelHealth Investment Partners, a healthcare private equity firm and majority owner of SkilaMederi, will support the merger with an additional equity investment.

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SkilaMederi, in business since 1995, is a leading provider of global product launch optimization and stakeholder engagement insight that drive measurable value for life sciences companies. SkilaMederi's CrowdLink™ stakeholder analytics platform and iLaunch™ intelligent launch optimization services are used around the globe by industry-leading medical, marketing, market access and sales teams at pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.

Qforma, formed in 2000 from technology initially developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, empowers its healthcare customers with actionable insights, quantified metrics, and timely alerts to impending change. Qforma has established itself as the leader in Community Opinion Leader mapping, which is critical as healthcare companies continue to educate physicians about new therapies in a resource-challenged environment.

NewCo will be called Qforma and will emerge as a leading provider of healthcare data analytics. It will focus on social analytics, stakeholder engagement insights, predictive modeling and launch optimization. As the health care industry evolves, decision makers increasingly rely on real-time actionable intelligence. The combined company is uniquely positioned to provide insights from thousands of local experts in any given disease or condition, Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), Managed Care Organizations, healthcare provider groups, integrated health systems and hospitals.

The key strategic benefits of the merger include:

• Comprehensive product offering: The combined company will have the most unique and broad product offering that will help pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies target their marketing efforts on a global, national and local level.
• Leader in social network analytics: Social network data and analysis is transforming marketing tactics and NewCo is well-positioned to capitalize on this growing trend.
• Cross marketing opportunities: The two companies have a diverse customer base without much overlap. This provides immediate cross-selling opportunities.
• Global presence: Qforma will have six offices including four in the US and two in Europe enabling the company to effectively and efficiently service its customers.

Kilian Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of SkilaMederi, will lead the combined organization. "The merger allows us to create a unique combination of social analytics with real world healthcare data and provide the life sciences industry with unparalleled, actionable intelligence. I am very impressed with the capabilities of the Qforma software team. Santa Fe is well-known for complex research and development and the combined company can benefit from this pool of technical expertise."

Roger D. Jones, PhD, Co-Founder of Qforma and director of NewCo said, "The merger allows us to bring non-traditional data sets such as social media into our analysis. We have been looking to add social media data to our capability for some time, and to merge with SkilaMederi, the leader in this area, provides our customers a tremendous opportunity. We could not have chosen a better partner in terms of innovation and commitment to customers. We will utilize SkilaMederi's global presence to bring exciting products to new clients worldwide." Roger added, "Working with Kilian and BelHealth has been a pleasure."

"BelHealth's strategy is to create a leading provider in the fragmented pharmaceutical analytics market and the merger brings us closer to our goal. We have evaluated several acquisition prospects for SkilaMederi over the past year and Qforma is clearly the perfect fit. We are very excited about NewCo's positioning and opportunity" said, Inder Tallur, Managing Director of BelHealth Investment Partners, L.P. "The combination of traditional pharmaceutical data analytics, combined with social media sentiment and network analysis, is a major step forward for the healthcare industry, and we are proud to lead the way."

NewCo will have a global presence with facilities in Frankfurt, Germany; Lviv, Ukraine; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Princeton, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois and headquarters in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

About BelHealth Investment Partners
BelHealth Investment Partners, based in New York, is a healthcare private equity firm focused on lower middle market companies. BelHealth acquires majority positions in entrepreneur-owned companies we believe would benefit from our vast operating and private equity experience. The firm typically invests $10-25 million per platform company across three healthcare segments: Services, Information Technology and Products & Distribution. Applying an active, hands-on approach, BelHealth utilizes its experience to support management, drive revenue and profit growth and achieve superior returns for its investors and partners.

For further information, please visit www.belhealth.com  

SOURCE SkilaMederi