Cogora acquires PCM Healthcare

05 October 2015

Cogora, the media and marketing services group, has today announced the acquisition of PCM Healthcare, a leading medical education and communications agency.

Cogora’s media brands include Pulse, Nursing in Practice, The Commissioning Review and Hospital Pharmacy Europe, while the company’s marketing services arm delivers research, strategy and campaigns for its clients.

Cogora Chief Executive John Pettifor commented: “Though we started life as a ‘traditional’ media company, we’ve also been operating in the agency space for some time now and we’ve been looking to build the size of the group in this area.

“We identified PCM right at the very beginning of that journey as a potential acquisition that would bring the very highest levels of technical expertise and clinical knowledge to the group, as well as broaden the geographic scope of our operations and bring their leadership position within European CME. So I am absolutely delighted that Alisa, Rob and the team are joining us”.

PCM Healthcare co-founders Alisa Pearlstone and Rob Miller will continue to lead the business post-acquisition, and the company will remain in its London Docklands offices.

PCM has pioneered novel approaches to deliver healthcare communications and non-promotional medical education that have measurable impact on patient care standards for a range of clients including Novartis, Gilead and Indivior.

The company is structured into two separate divisions: PCM Scientific, its specialist CME and independent education business, has delivered some of the largest and most successful practice-enhancing education programmes in Europe over the last few years; and Pharmacom Media, its separate promotional medical communications team, produces medical communication strategies and tactical campaigns for its blue-chip pharmaceutical clients.

Commenting on the deal, Alisa Pearlstone said: “PCM Healthcare has grown significantly in recent years on the back of our clear commitment to delivering innovative techniques and meaningful outcomes for our clients. Our partnership with Cogora creates an excellent synergy and promises a significant boost to the PCM Healthcare offering.

“Cogora brings commercially significant resources, which will help us to dramatically extend the reach and impact of our specialist approaches much more widely – not least through Cogora’s extensive global physician network, with access to over 220,000 healthcare professionals, and its heavyweight digital production and marketing team. But at the same time, Rob and I will continue to run PCM in exactly the same manner we always have, with the same team, from our current office, and with the continued support of our MDs Kate Ross and Celeste Kolanko”.