After acquiring Intouch Group in December 2021, EVERSANA worked to combine the company with its own marketing agency EVERSANA ENGAGE and in June 2022 unveiled the newly combined EVERSANA INTOUCH. As we recently passed the one-year anniversary of the creation of this new agency, PM360 spoke with Jim Lang, CEO, EVERSANA and Faruk Capan, Chief Innovation Officer, EVERSANA and CEO, EVERSANA INTOUCH, about how the new company has fared in that time, where they hope to continue to push the envelope to further advance our industry, and what scares or excites them the most about where things are headed.
PM360: How has the transition gone of integrating Intouch Group and what has been the biggest benefit of the merger?
Jim Lang: The integration has gone beyond our expectations. Of course, the detail stuff always has some challenges, putting together financial systems, human resource systems, enterprise planning systems, sales forecasting, etc., but the teams have done a great job. The rationale for bringing the companies together was both organizations were world-class across differing services but collectively more powerful, and we had hoped that our aligned cultures would unlock the ability to cross-solve and bring new solutions to our clients. We’ve seen all kinds of great examples on that front.
Faruk Capan: I agree with Jim. When you hear past histories about when agencies combine, you have a lot of overlap, layoffs, etc. In our case, we were plugged into a commercial solution which now, as an agency, gives us much more expertise and access to other teams. So, we are not just another agency inside of a bunch of other companies, but we have become part of a whole commercial engine. We are now partners with the consultancy teams, deployment teams, and patient support services, so we have a much bigger remit to our clients’ work.
In your first year, what would you say has been the agency’s biggest accomplishment?
Faruk Capan: In the middle of being integrated into a big cog of the wheel and becoming part of the commercial team, we still grew almost $65 million, which is our highest number ever in growth size. Of course, we also won 50-plus awards and our people grew by about 200, so those are all great, positive signs that have made us even more excited for the future.
Building off that growth, what plans do you have for the agency moving forward? Are you looking to add in any areas to better serve clients based on where you see the industry going?
Faruk Capan: We continue to invest in technology, platforms, and ideas. As you know, right now generative AI is the biggest buzzword. But automation AI is a huge game-changer for our clients, so we are focusing on that as well as building an amazing omnichannel platform. As I see it, AI and omnichannel are not only going to completely change the business, but our lives. The way we build content, the way we approve it, the way we reach our patients and doctors is all changing. While some people may view AI as a scary topic, what I tell every single one of our employees: “AI will not replace your job but people using AI will.” So we are making a huge investment in this area. We are also looking to invest more in areas such as market access and MedComm. I like to compare us to a hundred-mile-an-hour train that is constantly building new things on top of it.
Jim, as CEO, do you have plans to further grow the organization at large and add beyond this merger with Intouch that you wrapped up a couple of years ago?
Jim Lang: The answer is yes, yes, and yes. We’re very well-positioned now at over $1 billion as EVERSANA overall, but we still have a tremendous opportunity to help the industry in what we call “bend the curve” on commercialization effectiveness. So, how can we have better patient outcomes at higher revenue and sales for our clients at lower costs? Another part of our growth factor is continuing to increase our presence internationally. EVERSANA INTOUCH is a global network agency, but we want to get the rest of EVERSANA’s services at scale in Europe and Asia. That will be a big area for focus in this next arc of EVERSANA’s growth.
As you look to grow internationally, are there any particular opportunities in other countries you’re looking to capitalize on?
Jim Lang: One of the reasons global expansion is so important is a lot of the new medicines coming to market are targeted for very small populations. Some people argue cancer is turning out to be a rare disease product because we’re using biomarkers or genetic testing as a way to screen who exactly a medicine will work well for. So, the population for any of those products is smaller and for us to have the economics work as an industry, we’ve got to get fast around the globe. Essentially, we need to get to global simultaneous launches. Because how can you deny a child in Italy access to a medication that will help them survive? That’s one mission we’re really passionate about right now.
Finally, as two long-time industry veterans, is there anywhere the industry is going that either scares or excites you?
Jim Lang: I’ll give you a scary one, which is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tucked in a whole package of controls on pricing. It’s unfortunate because it’s going to create some undue pressure, and I don’t think it is a thoughtful regulatory framework that considers the monies needed to fund innovation. However, it doesn’t scare me in the long-run because the industry always finds a way to rebalance these kinds of things, but it’s going to temporarily damper some things in our industry.
Faruk Capan: I agree. Somehow, over the last 30 years I’ve been in this business, there has always been this bad reputation around high prices. People don’t realize what it takes to invent these medications. As an industry, we need to get better, because I’m worried if they continue to pass down these regulations that innovation R&D will start to fizzle. On the other hand, as I mentioned with generative AI, I’m excited to see how this will impact our business. Potentially in five years, I might not have a job or we’ll be doing completely different jobs, but I can’t wait to find out.
