WorldOne Secures $35M Commitment from Deerfield Management

NEW YORK, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldOne, the global leader in healthcare data collection, insights and intelligence, today announced that the company has secured $35 million in funding commitments from Deerfield Management Company. The capital will be used to accelerate the development of WorldOne's Data Collection and Interactive businesses.

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The focus of the investment will be on expansion of Sermo, which WorldOne acquired in July of last year, to offer physicians a global destination to participate in industry market research, collaborate with their peers, and compete in medical challenges that influence healthcare innovation and improve patient outcomes. Both WorldOne's Data Collection and Interactive businesses, the commercial entities of the company, will benefit as Sermo enters new markets and as the number and diversity of physician engagement opportunities increase.

Sermo, the largest fully verified online physician community in the U.S., has hosted more than three million discussions, and today members spend over 40,000 hours each month engaging with each other online and via mobile applications. When surveyed, over 92% of WorldOne's Global Networked Community – in a sample of seven of the largest international markets – expressed interest in an integrated community that offers peer-to-peer collaboration, point-of-care clinical resources, and market research participation across web and mobile, validating the opportunity for WorldOne to leverage its global footprint to scale Sermo.

"With the Sermo acquisition to complement our innovative engagement product portfolio and global reach to over one million physicians, we had the core ingredients to build a much needed interactive destination for physicians around the world," said Peter Kirk, chief executive officer of WorldOne. "With this recent round of funding, we now have the necessary resources to execute against that grand vision."

The source for this round of funding, Deerfield Management Company, is a healthcare-focused investment fund manager based in New York. "Deerfield looks forward to partnering with WorldOne to further enhance its leading data collection and interactive technology platforms," said James Flynn, general partner at Deerfield Management. "We are also excited by the synergies between WorldOne's physician community and research assets and Deerfield's own market intelligence capabilities."  

About WorldOne
WorldOne is the global leader in healthcare data collection, insights and intelligence. Headquartered in New York with 18 regional offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, WorldOne brings online and offline access to medical professionals through a range of differentiated products and services. In July 2012, WorldOne acquired Sermo, the largest online physician community in the United States, to provide an expanded platform for its Global Networked Community comprising over 1.8 million healthcare professionals spanning 80 countries, including more than 385,000 US physicians.

About Deerfield Management Company
Deerfield is committed to advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy. For more information about Deerfield, please visit http://www.deerfield.com.

SOURCE WorldOne