Envision Pharma Group appoints Richard Gorman as President, Strategic Consulting

Envision Pharma Group (Envision) has appointed Richard “Rich” Gorman to the role of President, Strategic Consulting and member of the Executive Leadership Team.

Rich is a 30-year veteran of the life sciences industry and a respected leader with a track record of success in pharmaceutical commercialization. He is an experienced head of high-performing teams that build go-to-market strategies to deliver on business development and revenue generation goals.

Rich will be responsible for leading the Strategic Consulting business across Envision’s commercial, medical, and technology sectors. He will lead a team of scientific, medical, and commercial strategists with deep expertise in the life sciences industry while combining its technology and AI platforms to accelerate the business and scientific momentum of clients’ strategies.

Prior to joining Envision, Rich served as Chief Commercial Officer and Global Head of Strategy for Amplity Health. Before that, he held various leadership positions and senior business development roles at Syneos Health. His background includes serving as a CEO for a specialty pharmaceutical company, as well as several positions within the field of contract pharmaceutical development and manufacturing.

Rich shares, “I am delighted to be joining Envision Pharma Group at this pivotal and exciting time. I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this talented team of strategy consultants. Combining their proven capabilities with the Envision technology platform will create a powerful option for manufacturers looking to efficiently bring new science and products to patients.”  

Meg Heim, Chief Executive Officer of Envision Pharma Group states, “We are so excited to have Rich join our team as we continue to accelerate Envision’s business expansion, mission, and commitment to our clients’ needs. Rich’s proven expertise will be critical in partnering with our clients to execute upon their goals, improve performance, and meet their unique business needs with the support of our technology platforms and strategic advisory expertise.”

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Envision Pharma Group is delighted to have received an award at an event that celebrates the fastest-growing companies in Sussex.

The Sussex Super Growth Awards held at Brighton’s Amex stadium, served to recognise the county’s high-growth, job-generating businesses. The event was returning for its 4th year of championing innovative and evolving companies, and cites the Sussex region as being a significant and growing contributor to the national economy.

Receiving the award at the event were Envision’s Chief Financial Officer John Gillie, and HR Director Petra Battersby. Petra said, “Envision are really excited to once again be a finalist in the Super Growth Awards. It is a testament to our staff’s professionalism, dedication and commitment that we are recognised for our growth and innovation.”

This latest accreditation follows Envision being recognised as the top performing mid-market company, and one of the Top 20 fastest-growing businesses in Sussex at the end of last year.

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Glastonbury, CT, and Fort Washington, PA, USA, February 26, 2018 – National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) engages Envision Pharma Group to support their Oncology Research Program using iEnvision – a new web-based software platform for medical programs.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Oncology Research Program (ORP) today announced the selection and implementation of the iEnvision medical affairs platform developed by Envision Technology Solutions. NCCN ORP supports research through collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and by drawing on the expertise of investigators from leading cancer centers. iEnvision is a web-based software platform specifically designed and developed to support multiple medical affairs-related programs of activity, including, as in this case, investigator-led studies.

NCCN chose the iEnvision platform to help manage the multiple research projects supported within the ORP. NCCN values the iEnvision platform’s simple and intuitive system for use by investigators/applicants, pharmaceutical industry grant providers, and internal staff. While NCCN did require minor adaptations to the industry standard iEnvision configuration usually used by pharmaceutical companies to manage investigator-led research – the platform did not require extensive customization in order to support the NCCN ORP process.

“Switching to Envision’s web-based system has allowed the ORP to streamline our process for managing proposals and investigator-initiated clinical trials, making it easier to manage research that will improve patient’s quality-of-life and reduce cancer-related deaths,” said Susan Most, RN, MBA, Director of Clinical Operations, NCCN ORP. “Envision worked with us to adapt their platform to meet the specific needs of our applicants, reviewers, and institutions. We’re now able to accept and review proposals in a more efficient, user-friendly manner.”

NCCN has now launched their iEnvision-based solution and migrated active studies into the system. NCCN will use the system to process approximately 50 proposal submissions and manage 70 active studies annually, and to communicate directly from within the system with the pharmaceutical companies who provide the research grants.

Kelli Walker, Envision’s Director of Platform Strategy, added, “We are pleased to have been able to provide the adaptation of our industry standard study management iEnvision module for NCCN, supporting their industry-wide coordination of important, independent oncology research.”

NCCN anticipates that the iEnvision-based system will enable the management of their studies in an efficient manner, with the ability to upgrade and make changes to the system annually. iEnvision will facilitate a consistent experience for grant applicants, NCCN staff, and peer reviewers, leading to a more effective study selection process, and ultimately contributing to better patient care.

About NCCN

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 27 leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education, is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer care so that patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers.

Clinicians, visit NCCN.org. Patients and caregivers, visit NCCN.org/patients. Media, visit NCCN.org/news. Follow NCCN on Twitter @NCCNnews and Facebook @National.Comprehensive.Cancer.Network.

About Envision Pharma Group

Founded in 2001, Envision Pharma Group is a global, innovative technology and scientific communications company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. Envision is a leading provider of evidence communication services and industry-leading technology solutions that have applicability across many areas of Medical Affairs and related functional responsibilities. Envision Pharma Group provides services and technology solutions to more than 80 companies, including 19 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

Envision has 14 offices, five in the UK – Bishop's Stortford, Horsham, London (Hammersmith), Marlow, and Wilmslow; one in Serbia; six in the US – Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Southport, CT; Madison, NJ, Stirling, NJ; and Glastonbury, CT; and two in Asia Pacific – Tokyo and Sydney. The company employs more than 640 team members, including over 230 highly qualified in-house medical writers and over 130 technology solutions team members involved with software development and customer support.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Rachel Darwin

Manager, Public Relations, NCCN

Tel: +1 (267) 622 6624

Email: Darwin@nccn.org

www.nccn.org

Kelli Walker, PharmD, MS

Director, Platform Strategy, Envision Technology Solutions

Tel: +1 (215) 239 6605

Email: kelli.walker@envisionpharmagroup.com

www.envisionpharmagroup.com

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Building upon established foundations of patient-focused strategy and advocacy, Envision Pharma Group, the world’s leading medical communications and technology company, is delighted to announce that Professor Karen Woolley has been appointed Global Lead, Patient Partnerships.

With this new role, Envision is embracing the transformational change that patients expect in their relationship with industry. Empowered through strong networks and an active engagement with medical publications, patient advocates and organisations are looking to become involved in decisions throughout the product lifecycle.

Envision recognises that decision makers, including regulators, payers, healthcare professionals and industry clients, increasingly see the value of patients as partners. Patients have unique and valuable insights to share. In light of this evolving relationship between patients and industry, Envision is prioritising patient involvement. The creation of this senior and global role reflects Envision's commitment to both patients and clients.

Karen has a long-term interest in patients as partners in healthcare. As a thought-leader, she has conducted, presented, and published research on patient involvement in medical research and has helped Envision to establish trusted partnerships with leading patient advocates around the world. Karen brings unique insights into this role having been a government-appointed director of five hospitals. Karen served on the Patient Safety and Quality Committee for 4 years and saw the value gained from having patient advisory boards and leveraging technology to gain patient-reported insights. She has championed the need for our profession and our organisation to embrace Patient Partnerships and we look forward to seeing what her passion and energy brings to this new, Envision-wide, service offering.

Karen notes, “I am honored to be working with a talented and global team at Envision to help our clients and patient partners work together, ethically and meaningfully. Patient involvement is transforming our industry and empowering the patient voice is a responsibility that both excites and unites our services and technology team members.” Karen will continue to support ProScribe globally and will mentor the new General Manager for Envision in Japan. Karen highlighted that, “ProScribe continues to grow successfully and globally as part of the Envision Pharma Group. We have great talent in ProScribe in the US, EU, and Asia-Pacific region that has been, and will continue to be, nurtured as part of Envision’s strategic succession planning.”

After learning about Karen’s new role and Envision’s ongoing commitment to Patient Partnerships, Richard Stephens, Joint Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Research Involvement and Engagement and Chair of the NCRI Consumer Forum made the following comment “I am very pleased to see a major medical communication agency like Envision invest a dedicated resource in patient involvement. Communication agencies can play a key role in building and publishing an evidence base to guide best practice for patient involvement in industry's work.”

About Envision:

Driven by evidence, enabled by technology. Delivering solutions to support evidence generation and communications.

Envision Pharma Group provides innovative technology and communication solutions supporting Medical Affairs and allied functions. Envision partners with over 120 clients, including 19 of the top 20 pharma companies. Envision employs over 600 team members across 14 global offices, including 230 in-house medical writers and 120 technology specialists.

For further information, please contact:

David Thompson
Chief Strategy Officer
Envision Pharma Group
Tel: +44 (0)7557 238911

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We are delighted that Envision Pharma Group employees have provided strategic account management advice that has helped shape a new medical communications career guide for the industry, ‘The business of medical communications: A guide to getting started in account management’, published on 22 January, 2018.

This first edition of the careers guide aims to provide information for people considering a move to medcomms relating to the industry, career path, and required skills and qualifications. The publication contains contributions from several specialists in the field, as they describe insights on their day-to-day work along with personal career journeys and highlights. Among the Envision team members who contributed to the development of the career guide was Account Executive Laura Gill (pictured), who provided an extensive personal profile on her background, experience and role in the account management team.

Laura notes in the guide, “In the past 6 months, I have already worked on a range of medical meetings and commercial projects including the launch of a new e-learning platform. My day-to-day tasks include financial management, tracking projects, liaising with internal teams and developing relationships with clients. At Envision Pharma Group, alongside our key roles and responsibilities, it is hugely important to maintain a strong work life culture that balances fun and hard work; this is as important as the actual work you deliver.”

The guide – which features quotes from Envision Client Solutions team members on why they enjoy working in medcomms – was authored by Lindsey Heer, a former Account Manager at Envision, and can be downloaded from FirstMedCommsJob.com’s website here.

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In early November, forty-five delegates from twenty-five pharmaceutical and healthcare companies gathered at the iconic Liberty Hotel in Boston for the inaugural iEnvision Summit. This meeting provided the opportunity for our partners to experience first-hand the latest iEnvision developments, with a view to planning for a transition to the new system from 2018 onwards.

Delegates enjoyed a varied agenda that kicked-off with a much-anticipated tour of the new iEnvision suite. Further highlights of the meeting included sessions on the future of Medical Affairs with a focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and medical plan alignment; opportunities to get hands-on with iEnvision; and information on the iEnvision transition process.

A series of workshops helped our clients begin to think about the strategy and planning for their individual transitions to iEnvision, thereby establishing effective communities to support industry standards, tactical usage, and the further evolution of the iEnvision business platform. The meeting also explained exactly how Envision is transforming not only our software but also our organization to meet the evolving, future needs of our clients.

We would like to thank all our delegates for their insights and suggestions and all contributions at the Summit. These will help inform both our strategic roadmap and the community activities moving forward.

Client feedback confirmed that the meeting was very well received and generated a lot of interest in iEnvision. Additional client summits will follow in 2018 in Europe, the USA, and Japan.

We look forward to welcoming our clients to future iEnvision summits and other iEnvision events.

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To underpin its commitment to clients to provide pioneering scientific multichannel medical communication solutions alongside its purpose built industry-leading software, Envision is delighted to announce the acquisition of Touch Creative Design Agency.

The Touch team brings a wealth of experience, creativity, and an impressive portfolio of innovative projects within the healthcare arena. Touch will collaborate with Envision to deliver significant creative and digital capabilities to extend Envision’s ever-expanding multichannel offering. Bringing the organisations together will also give the agency extended reach and investment to support new initiatives.

Envision’s Chief Strategy Officer, David Thompson, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Touch to the Envision family. The addition of Touch to the group augments our existing capabilities and further cements our core principle of marrying scientific expertise and technology. Touch’s cutting-edge ideas, skills, and experience enhances our multichannel offering and ensures clients continue to receive best-in-class Medical Affairs solutions.”

Touch Managing Director, Vonig Watson, stated, “For 13 years Touch has established itself as a talented pharma/healthcare creative communications agency, with innovation, reliability, and creativity at its core. It is with great pleasure that Touch has now become part of Envision, enabling our combined multichannel communications expertise to be extended to a wider audience and, ultimately, to benefit more patients worldwide. Together we aim to raise the bar in delivering full-service pharma/healthcare multichannel communications for our clients.”

About Envision

Founded in 2001, Envision Pharma is an international, innovative global technology and scientific communication company serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Initially focusing on re-inventing the way biopharma companies managed their global data communications programs through the use of smart technology and best-in-class publication planning, Envision has evolved into a number of parallel business verticals, now offering a unique blend of Medical Affairs – focused, strategic multichannel data dissemination and consultancy services, enhanced with industry-leading, complementary technology solutions.

Envision now has 14 offices, five in the UK – Bishop's Stortford, Horsham, London (Hammersmith), Marlow, and Wilmslow; one in Serbia; six in the US – Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Southport, CT; Madison, NJ, Stirling, NJ; and Glastonbury, CT; and two in Asia Pacific – Tokyo and Sydney. The company employs more than 600 team members, including over 200 highly qualified in-house medical writers and over 100 technology solutions team members involved with platform development and customer support.

About Touch

Founded in 2004 and located in Bishop's Stortford, UK, Touch Creative Design is a pharma/healthcare focused agency with multi-industry experience – predominantly healthcare focused they also work across other industries. This experience keeps their ideas fresh, allowing them to evaluate and experiment with the latest technologies and learn what works with respect to customer engagement. Specialities include creative strategy development, digital and technology-based experiences, exhibitions and event services, branding and traditional creative media. www.touchcreative.co.uk/epg

The acquisition was supported by Envision’s equity partners – Ardian, the independent private investment company www.ardian.com, and GHO Capital, the specialist European investor in healthcare www.ghocapital.com. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For further information, please contact:

David Thompson
Chief Strategy Officer
Envision Pharma Group
Tel: +44 (0)7557 238911

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Envision Pharma Group is delighted to continue to support the important work of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) in furthering the aims of the Medical Affairs (MA) community.

MAPS is collecting feedback on MA professional development around medical leadership, data generation/distribution, and insights, to help inform how the society can best support the MA community. If you would like to participate in their short survey, the findings of which will be presented at the MAPS 2018 annual meeting in Miami, please follow the link below.

Please note Envision is not associated with the survey and will not see any results other than the aggregated responses presented at the annual meeting.

The survey can be found here:

Click here to take a brief survey and help us as we shape our future, together

As an appreciation for taking the time to complete the survey, MAPS will automatically enter survey respondents into a raffle for a chance to win one of two great prizes: a complimentary conference registration for their premier event, the MAPS 2018 Annual Meeting, taking place February 25-27 in Miami; or a free, one-year premium membership in MAPS with access to their soon-to-launch Medical Affairs Network.

Posted on behalf of Kirk V Shepard, MD, President 2016-2017, Medical Affairs Professional Society.

Further information on MAPS can be obtained from: http://www.medicalaffairs.org/

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Envision Pharma Group is delighted to be recognised as the top performing mid-market company and one of the Top 20 fastest-growing businesses in Sussex, having achieved sustained sales growth over the last three years.

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP’s most recent Best in Business research on the mid-market – which included companies with a turnover of between £10 and £300 million – has revealed Envision Pharma Group to be a real success story in Sussex.

This latest accreditation also shows Envision occupying the number one position in Sussex for the second year running, with a compound annual growth rate of 52% in revenues. BDO’s findings highlight the ongoing importance of such companies to the local economy.

Kevin Cook, Partner at BDO Guildford, commented: “Mid-market companies continue to drive growth in Sussex despite uncertainty caused by the Brexit negotiations. Envision Pharma Group is a great example of a business that, led by a strong management team, continues to embrace market opportunities and is well positioned to take advantage of any opportunities the changing economic landscape presents. We have a tremendous base of entrepreneurial and aspirational companies to be proud of locally.”

Envision Pharma Group’s Chief Strategy Officer, David Thompson, added: “Our efforts to augment the company's position as the leading scientific and technology company in the pharmaceutical services industry to a fully-fledged strategic multichannel partner for our medical affairs clients is starting to gain significant traction. This, in turn, is leading to further opportunities for both our talented staff and to new individuals joining the organisation. It’s a very exciting time.”

Click here to download the Best in Business Surrey and Sussex 2017/18 Report from the BDO Website.

Click here to read the article on the BDO Website.

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The Envision Pharma Group’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Kohles has joined the Executive Leadership Committee for the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS).

MAPS is the premier non-profit global society of Medical Affairs professionals across a spectrum of fields, experience, and locations. Joe’s appointment to the Committee will support the society as it transforms the Medical Affairs industry and increases its value to companies and, ultimately, benefits patients and consumers.

Speaking about MAPS, Joe said, “MAPS serves a critical need in the industry by uniting medical affairs professionals to share best practices, functional education, and generally promoting the value of the med affairs unit”.

Joe has been instrumental towards driving Envision’s strategic direction since joining the Group 2 years ago, and has more than 20 years of research and industry-side pharmaceutical experience, both in medical affairs and clinical research.

His previous industry experience included leading the oncology medical affairs team for a large Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company in the USA. In this capacity, he guided the overall medical strategy and led the team in execution of clinical trials, data analyses, publications plans, and overall medical support.

Joe has a broad range of experience across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, osteoporosis, pain and diabetes, and he has written and published more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts and over 60 abstracts and posters spanning basic research, preclinical, clinical, health outcomes, and pharmaco-economic analysis.

MAPS has a mission to advance the Medical Affairs profession and increase its impact across the Life Sciences industry by promoting excellence across Medical Affairs functions; developing guidelines to support industry standards and best practices; fostering advocacy for Medical Affairs position; and providing education and encouraging professional collaborations that support the practice of Medical Affairs.

With a non-profit status, MAPS is able to reinvest all revenue back into the society, which gives it the ability to create valuable programs and resources that support the Medical Affairs community.

To find out more about MAPS or to become a member, click the below link:

http://www.medicalaffairs.org

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Dr Rebecca Lew, PhD, CMPP, of ProScribe, part of the Envision Pharma Group delivered the “Best of ISMPP” session at the recent ISMPP Country Champions Meetings in Tokyo on November 21 and in Singapore on November 25.  These meetings were a mixture of presentations and roundtable discussions designed to increase the awareness of the Good Publications Practice Guidelines (GPP3) in the Asia Pacific region and the practicalities of their implementation – a full agenda of the topics covered is available here.

Dr Lew’s presentation summarized the key takeaways from the 2016 ISMPP Annual Meeting and customized them for the Asia Pacific region. The Country Champion events bridge the information gap between the inaugural Asia Pacific Meeting of ISMPP in 2015 and the next iteration of this biennial meeting (Tokyo, September 5, 2017).

As awareness of GPP3 grows in the Asia-Pacific region, the need for compliant, technology-enabled, medical writing support is increasing. Consequently, Envision is delighted to announce that the ProScribe leadership team, Professor Karen Woolley, PhD, CMPP, and Mark Woolley, PhD, will be relocating to Tokyo to drive the expansion of our Japan team and enhance the range of services we provide in the region. Professor Karen Woolley is a renowned expert in the delivery of compliant publication programs, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, and is an author on the GPP3 Guidelines published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. A translation of this publication is now available in Chinese, with a Japanese translation coming soon.

In the near future, we will be bolstering our current writing and client solutions team in the Tokyo office with Japanese-language customer care support for Datavision® and our other technology solutions.

Datavision® is the industry-standard, purpose-built publication-planning software solution, developed and maintained by The Envision Pharma Group for the management of global publication plans. It is currently used by more than 60 pharma and medical device companies to ensure consistent operating practices across international boundaries. Datavision® manages the various publication-related activities of more than 35,000 registered users across these global clients, their affiliates, their supporting agencies and external authors.

Please visit our website for more information on our full range of Medical Affairs services, our industry-leading software solutions, including Datavision®, Visiontracker®, Visiontracker HEORTM, MedinfoTM, Clear®, and LibraryTM.

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For the second year running, Envision Pharma Group has won the Best Original Research prize at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP). ‘Development and reporting of research reporting guidelines — who and what are missing?’, conducted by Dr Serina Stretton, Dr Lauri Arnstein, and Professor Karen Woolley, was presented at the Annual Meeting of ISMPP, May 1-3, National Harbor, Maryland, USA.

This year’s success follows on from winning the Best Original Research Prize at last year’s ISMPP meeting. The ‘Forewarned is forearmed: Trends in industry-sponsored clinical trials relevant to publication professionals’ research was conducted by Dr Michelle Anderson, Masayo Hisayama, Dr Jessica Deckman, Dr Cassandra Haley, and Professor Karen Woolley.

Similar to the global nature of the medical communications profession, these research projects involved an international and multi-disciplinary research team of Envision employees from the US, UK, Japan, and Australia and, as may be expected at a leading medical communications conference, Envision’s presentations included augmented reality features, such as video clips, animated graphics, and Japanese audio translations.

Karen Woolley commented, “Research is not easy, but research is needed to inform, guide, and, is some cases, defend our profession. We want to thank ISMPP for providing members with a forum for sharing research results. We’re also humbled and delighted that our peers have recognized the quality and relevance of our research. To win the ‘Best Original Research’ prize for the second year in a row is a credit to the curiosity, ingenuity, and effort of our scientific teams. Importantly, our creative and editorial teams always ensure we can share our results with ISMPP attendees in visually appealing and interactive ways. The best research is always a team effort!”

Successive wins provide independent endorsement of Envision’s thought-leadership position in the industry. Envision staff have to know the field to ask relevant questions and the answers help Envision’s clients and the broader medical communications profession.

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