Dublin-based UDG Healthcare has acquired Incisive Health for $17.7 million, the company announced on Tuesday. With that, UGD also announced that it is acquiring Putnam Associates for $88.6 million. Of the deal, $60 million will be paid upfront and the remainder as an earn out over the next five years, a media report said.
Putam has offices in Boston and San Francisco, with nearly 120 employees. It is a consultancy with a core focus on life-sciences industry and advising pharma companies.
Incisive will become part of UDG’s agency division Ashfield Healthcare Communications, and Putnam will join the ‘advisory’ side of the business, according to the media report.
According to Incisive co-founders Mike Birthistle, Sarah Winstone and Bill Morgan, Incisive was sold to UDG for various reasons. Incisive’s clients were seeking health policy advice from various geographical locations. The founders wanted to provide their teams with a wider scope of opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in the healthcare industry.
They believe the team at Ashfield will be able to deliver the client requirements.
Birthistle said, “Part of what attracted us to become part of UDG and Ashfield is that the way they work is to have standalone agencies within the group.
“We will still be Incisive.”
Birthistle firmly believes that Ashfield agencies would effortlessly work together because they share a common vision. “We wanted to be working with kindred spirits; people who share a similar culture and a similar outlook on the world, which we think is definitely the case with Ashfield,” he concluded.