Adheris acquires Catalina Health

BURLINGTON, Mass. — A division of inVentiv Health has acquired Catalina Marketing's medication adherence services subsidiary, inVentiv said Thursday.

The acquisition of Catalina Health by Adheris makes Adheris the largest provider in the nation of tailored, direct-to-patient medication adherence programs, inVentiv said. Catalina Health president Renee Selman will lead the combined company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Before Catalina, Selman served in various leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson, including worldwide president of Ethicon Women's Health and Urology. Jim Rotsart, currently Adheris' general manager and EVP, will become EVP of inVentiv Health Patient Outcomes.

"Improving patient outcomes is our number-one priority," inVentiv president for health patient outcomes Mark Dmytruk said. "A coordinated adherence approach - reaching individual patients across multiple touch points with customized messages based on predictive analytics - improves adherence in ways other organizations simply cannot match."

Both companies work through pharmacies across the country to deliver adherence communications to millions of people, and thanks to the acquisition, Adheris now has "unmatched" reach through a network of more than 40 pharmacy partners with 30,000 pharmacies and 65% of all retail prescriptions. Adheris is also growing its physician office network to complement its pharmacy network.

Patients will be able to receive communications in the doctor's office from their providers, followed by face-to-face communication with the pharmacist, as well as refill reminders through channels such as mobile. Adheris said that by combining its predictive analytics expertise with that of Catalina Health, it will offer "stronger and more effective" messaging based on a better understanding of consumer preferences and needs and allow Adheris to provide clients with a single vendor for the purchase of multiple services.