JMI Acquires Clinical Trials Companies from Thomson

Healthcare information and marketing services provider Jobson Medical Information LLC (JMI) this week acquired the assets of CenterWatch and The New England Institutional Review Board from Thomson Healthcare (a unit of The Thomson Corp.). A purchase price was not disclosed.

Both CenterWatch and NEIRB provide information and tools that serve the clinical trial industry (including a customer base of pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology and medical devise firms, CROs (clinical research organizations) and patients involved in the trials). CenterWatch produces relevant data for the field. The CenterWatch website lists more than 5,000 clinical trials and details more than 30,000 clinical trial sites. The site attracts more than 200,000 visitors a month. NEIRB supplies FDA mandated services to pharmaceutical companies and CROs.

JMI offers a wide range of offerings, from marketing services, information databases, trade publications, medical education programs, events and websites. The company is an affiliate of The Wicks Group of Companies LLC, a private equity firm that invests in properties in the communications, information and media industries.

We usually cover acquisitions made by The Thomson Corp. and its business units, not sales. But for JMI, these purchases represent significant acquisitions and should certainly help the company round out its healthcare information offerings. The company intends to use CenterWatch and NEIRB to expand its overall offerings in the development state of the pharmaceutical product pipeline, JMI CEO Mike Tansey said in a statement.

Both properties should position JMI for immediate prominence and future growth in the clinical trial space. Thomson's loss is definitely JMI's gain. It will be interesting to see if other similar acquisitions are also part of JMI's future.

FlightStats and Google Align to Provide Relevant Travel Search Results

Conducive Technology Corp.'s FlightStats platform has increased its profile with a recent affiliation with Google, launched last month--just in time for holiday travel. Google users using the search engine for airline flight information can now receive real-time flight information courtesy of FlightStats. (Conducive Technology is an ICG Model of Excellence award winner.)

All users need to do is enter a flight number and airline into the search box and they will receive departure and arrival times for the flight and if it is running on schedule. From the Google results page, users can obtain even more data, such as detailed flight information and airport conditions by clicking on a link that takes them to a FlightStats.com page. Once there, users will find additional features, such as the ability to schedule a flight status alert.

FlightStats collects its information from data feeds from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Being a part of Google results certainly increases the prominence of FlightStats and Conducive Technology, since this makes their very useful technology readily available to a wider audience. The alliance should also drive a steady increase in traffic to the FlightStats.com site. The site traffic could increase even more as users may eventually opt to bypass Google and visit FlightStats.com directly for their travel information.

Still, the relationship between the two companies will benefit Google too, as it will help improve the search engine's effectiveness in travel-related searches. Many people complain that the major search engines fail to provide relevant results. With these flight information queries powered by FlightStats, such individuals won't likely be disappointed.

American Medical Information Launches DrListExpress.com

American Medical Information, an online provider of medical, business and consumer databases, has launched DrListExpress.com. This new service is an online subscription tool created to help medical companies and sales representatives cultivate healthcare sales leads 24/7. (American Medical Information is an infoUSA company).

DrListExpress.com offers users access to 730,000 physicians and surgeons, 180,000 dentists and thousands of other healthcare providers, such as chiropractors, physical therapists, and healthcare facilities. It also offers access to databases of new movers and new homeowners for building medical practices.

To make DrListExpress.com an even more complete source, American Medical Information has also added content to the site. Customers can use the tool to educate themselves on the specifics of direct marketing, as well as call planning, researching competitors and uncovering other revenue streams.

Sales professionals are constantly seeking new ways in which to increase their pipelines, uncover promising sales leads and close those sales. Any tool that promises to help them accomplish their goals is worth trying. This one has such great potential, in part, because of the backing of database powerhouse infoUSA, which is known for its vast business and consumer databases.

Getting face time with any physician is also an incredible challenge for sales reps; and it's an even more daunting task if they are targeting the wrong physicians. This new tool should definitely help reps identify the decision-makers they seek. With nearly one million names in the database at launch, DrListExpress.com should provide value for reps immediately. The around the clock access isn't revolutionary, since it's a typical feature for online services. However, it's a key feature for reps who outline their sales strategies after business hours. The availability and functionality to DrListExpress.com should undoubtedly ensure that the entire sales process keeps moving.

IHS Expands Presence In Energy Market With McCloskey Buy

IHS Inc. last week acquired U.K.-based The McCloskey Group Ltd. for approximately 14.4 million pounds. The McCloskey Group provides information and analysis on the international coal markets. The company was founded in 1987 to provide coal and energy newsletters to the Financial Times.

The McCloskey Group's current stable of products includes eight print and electronic publications, annual conferences and consulting services. Coal producers, traders, shippers and consumer blue-chip customers rely on these offerings.

This deal will ultimately help IHS bolster its energy-related offerings to assist IHS in providing a more comprehensive suite of news and analysis for this market. It's not a particularly large transaction, but it will undoubtedly play a significant role in helping IHS become a more complete information and services provider for the energy market and for its overall customer base.

Advanstar Announces New Digital Strategy

Advanstar Communications has announced a new direction for its Healthcare Group that calls for digital distribution of its content. Its new site, ModernMedicine.com, a centralized physician portal, will serve as a centralized physician portal from which users can accesses Advanstar's health content.

ModernMedicine.com integrates content from Advanstar's five primary care publications (including Medical Economics) and seven specialty care publications, as the site replaces each publication's own website. Advanstar anticipates the site will have 100,000 registered users, who are authenticated against the American Medical Association database, in 2008. The company expects this will help its advertising clients effectively reach the authenticated doctors they wish to connect with.

ModernMedicine.com will provide access to more than 300 peer-reviewed journals, coding and reimbursement tools, formulary status tools, a library of CME programs, customizable patient education, coverage of more than 80 major medical conferences and practice management advice.

Advanstar's other electronic plans include increasing the frequency of its Drug Topics title, with five editions published each month (four produced digitally and one in print).

Publishers seem to be taken with the idea to create a single portal (essentially a one-stop-shop) for their content offerings. It makes sense to focus on building just one strong brand; a single place where readers can find the content and services they are looking for and where advertisers can reach a large and relevant audience with a single placement.

With a combination of their publications' content and other offerings (such as peer-reviewed journals and coding tools), Advanstar is certainly on the right track. But to make it work for the long-term, Advanstar (as well as other publishers launching similar portals) has to be committed to the continued development of the portal. It has to regularly give readers new reasons to visit; reasons to make this their only source for healthcare-related content. Launching a site such as ModernMedicine.com is not a one-time proposition. It requires a constant commitment. Site visitors must find offerings that engage them every time they visit or they will simply find another source. Making ModernMedicine.com required reading for its customers is truly the ultimate goal; and Advanstar certainly has the resources in place to make that happen.