Indegene buys US firm

Making its second major consolidation in the US market, India's largest pharma communication solutions company"" Indegene Lifesystems has acquired MedCases Inc, a leading medical e-learning solutions company in the US. Indegene, promoted by Nadathur Fareast, a leading venture capital company and a team of life sciences professionals, had acquired MedSen Inc, a leader in the promotional medical marketing space in the US last year.

The total acquisition value of MedCases is not known. Sanjay Parikh, director, Indegene Lifesystems, told Business Standard that the US acquisition, which was funded through internal accruals, was a strategic move to make the company a fully integrated communication solution provider with MedCases' high capabilities in interactive continuing medical eduction (CME) solutions.

According to industry sources, the enterprise valuation of MedCases, which was owned by US' Merck Ventures could be in the range of $20 to $25 million (approximately Rs 112 crore).

Indegene has already built up a strong network in the US and other developed and developing markets globally in the fast growing pharma communication and promotion services space. Since the communication services outsourcing is a fast emerging concept in the world pharmaceutical industry, Indegene has almost all the big pharmaceutical companies in its clientle both in India and abroad, said Parikh. While the the annual market for CME in India is estimated to be over Rs 500 crore, the US which forms 50 per cent of the total world CME business has about $2.25 billion worth market. The Indian market for the pharmaceutical communication services outsourcing is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore at present.

The pharma communication and marketing services outsourcing covers formulating scientific and non-scientific promotional materials, creating medical presentation products and producing interactive continuing medical eduction (CME) solutions based on the pharmacology and clinical based data, case studies etc for the pharmaceutical companies. Indegene is currently one of the leaders in this services segment in the world including India with top domestic and multinational drug companies in its clientle. The worldwide market for CME is estimated to be on the excess of $5 billion.