AGENCY OF THE YEAR
In New York last month, Wishbone took top honors as 2009 Agency of the Year at Med Ad News’ 20th Annual Manny Awards recognizing the best in pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising. Wishbone experienced 35% growth in 2008, and the agency continues to grow. Wishbone managers attributed this success to organic growth from existing clients and new business wins from Novartis. For more info, visit www.wishbone-itp.com.

ANALYTICS PRACTICE LAUNCHED
Smith Hanley Consulting Group, an inVentiv Health company and a nationwide specialty staffing and recruitment firm, announced the launch of its Business Intelligence and Analytics Consulting Practice. As a complement to the staffing organization, the new arm’s strategic business intelligence, data warehousing, and analytics practice will assist clients in improving fact-based decision-making in their operations, financial management, and regulatory compliance areas. SHCG also announced that Bharat Chitnavis will lead the new division.

EXPANDED CLEAN ROOM
Microtest Laboratories, based in Agawam, MA, has added new technology and professional staffing to expand its contamination and clean-room testing services and contract manufacturing for the medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries. This testing meets or exceeds requirements for regulatory regimes including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the European Union (EU) Annex, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Among the company’s offerings are HEPA filtration systems, viable sampling, nonviable air particulate sampling, disinfection validation, gowning validation, DNA sequence based microbial identification, and compressed air or gas testing. For additional information, visit www.microtestlabs.com.

PHARMACEUTICAL TOPS BW 50
Five healthcare companies made Business Week’s 13th annual list
of the 50 best corporate performers.

Companies were chosen based on their average return on capital, growth,
and comparison within their industrial sector.

Gilead Sciences (Foster City, CA) headed the list with the most return on capital in the healthcare industry and fifth position overall in sales growth. Gilead’s success came from turning a cocktail of drugs into a lower-cost, once-a-day pill to treat HIV. Its scientists are currently working on a patient-friendly treatment for hepatitis C, which affects 170 million people worldwide. Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA) was 12 on the list thanks to the newly developed RapidArc, technology that speeds up treatment of cancerous tumors. At 22, Express Scripts (St. Louis, MO), a pharmacy benefit manager, encourages patients to switch to generics. Waters Corporation (Milford, MA), at 33, helps companies and government agencies, including the FDA, test product quality and safety using mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography. Intuitive Surgical (Sunnyvale, CA), at 41, developed the da Vinci surgical robots, which cut down on patients’ recovery time and complications.

MARKETING ALLIANCE FORMED
LyonHeart Communications (New York, NY) and Kazaam Interactive (Newtown, PA) have entered an exclusive partnership that integrates Kazaam’s knowledge of emerging media (including portable devices, social media, and gaming) for healthcare clients with LyonHeart’s strategic healthcare communications. The partnership gives LyonHeart the capability to provide clients with global web portfolios, virtual selling solutions, eLearning, eCommerce, search engine marketing, analytics, and other ways to connect with customers online.
—Andrew Matthius

NEW FOCUS FOR PFIZER
Pfizer (New York, NY) will take a giant step into biologics this year, thanks to its merger with industry leader Wyeth. In the first stages of integration, Pfizer plans to split R&D into two divisions: one for traditional drugs, headed by Pfizer R&D chief Martin Mackay, and another for biologic products including vaccines, antibodies, proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids, headed by Wyeth R&D chief Mikael Dolsten. “Creating two distinct but complementary research organizations led by the top scientist from each company will provide sharper focus, less bureaucracy, and clearer accountability in drug discovery,” said Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. This change is part of an ongoing reorganization of Pfizer R&D into small, focused scientific teams that will work closely with business and marketing people to target specific high-potential therapeutic areas and leading-edge innovative technologies. The Wall Street Journal estimates the company’s combined annual research budget at more than $10 billion.
—Bruce Lacey