Ardian & GHO Capital team with Envision leadership to acquire the Envision Pharma Group from the Halifax Group

Ardian & GHO Capital team with Envision leadership to acquire the Envision Pharma Group from the Halifax Group
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Jul 6, 2016
Ardian & GHO Capital team with Envision leadership to acquire the Envision Pharma Group from the Halifax Group

Ardian, the independent private investment company, in collaboration with GHO Capital, the specialist European investor in healthcare, has partnered with the Envision Pharma Group’s (“Envision”) leadership team to acquire Envision, a leading Medical Affairs-focused scientific communications and technology solutions provider, from the Halifax Group. The management team and employees, led by Brian Hepburn (CEO and founder), Greg Caswill (Chairman and founder), John Gillie (CFO), and Joseph Brown (President Envision Technology Solutions; ETS), will be reinvesting and continuing to lead the business in the next evolution of its growth.



Operating globally, Envision is a recognized partner to the Medical Affairs organizations providing scientific data communication services and industry-leading technology solutions to biopharmaceutical and medical devices companies on a global basis. Envision assists its clients in supporting the commercialization of new compounds via strategic data-communication planning, medical writing, medical communications services, and providing best-in-class technology solutions across the key operational functions of Medical Affairs.



Since inception in 2001, Envision has enjoyed strong year-on-year organic growth of c.20%. In addition to this organic growth, Envision has recently made two strategic acquisitions: ProScribe − extending their global reach into the Asia-Pacific region; and the Alligent Group − expanding their range of medical communication services to fully support their data continuum strategy across Medical Affairs functions. Envision has also launched several new solutions, including: Medical Information, HEOR Portfolio Management, and the Medical Affairs Library, which enhance the suite of solutions focused on Medical Affairs operational excellence.



These acquisitions and solution expansions further bolster Envision’s capabilities and build upon the range of service and solution offerings, which, in addition to publication planning and delivery, have grown to encompass medical strategy consultancy, Market Access communications, medical communications & MSL support, digital and creative services, and policy and operational excellence consultancy.



Envision’s unique position within the growing market of outsourced Medical Affairs services is underpinned by seamlessly marrying unparalleled scientific and industry expertise with a range of purpose-built, technology solutions that facilitate knowledge-sharing, operational excellence and decision-making effectiveness.



Datavision® is the industry standard solution for compliant publication planning, execution and management. However, the range of innovative and strategic management software, purpose-built for life-science clients has also expanded to provide support for our newer service offerings in Medical Affairs and Market Access:



Library™ – Efficient access management of approved for use scientific materials across the enterprise. Provides easy sharing and multi-faceted search capabilities, notifies users of new material for release, expiration of material, and when new content becomes available based on a user’s profile.

Visiontracker® – The industry-leading, web-enabled software application to manage all global independent investigator trial (clinical, non-clinical, and collaborations), medical education, and charity programs.

Medinfo™ – The complete, next-generation global medical information solution that will change the way your company shares information and gathers insights.

Clear® – A purpose-built solution to facilitate the compliant, efficient, and appropriate evaluation of all scientific materials targeted for disclosure.

Visiontracker HEOR™ – The complete workflow solution to manage your HEOR project portfolio including project evaluation and approval, vendor management, HQ and country transparency, and financial management.



In line with our goal to facilitate efficient knowledge-sharing, operational excellence, and decision-making capabilities across Medical Affairs and executives in global life-science organizations, we are launching the new iEnvisionTM Medical Affairs platform. The primary objective of iEnvisionTM is to provide a suite of purpose-built solutions to facilitate/support industry best practice within the Medical Affairs organization. The iEnvisionTM suite enables effective communication and monitoring of the plans, consistency for reporting and KPI metrics, and establishes consistent and auditable controls for compliance purposes. Our new Library™ and Medinfo™ solutions are available now, and our existing classic solutions are being moved to the platform during 2016 (Visiontracker®) and 2017 (Datavision® and Clear®), with additional complementary solutions already being designed.



Regarding the importance of the iEnvisionTM platform, Joseph Brown, President of ETS, said “The iEnvisionTM platform and modules, through collaboration with our client partners, is a cornerstone to help support the future Medical Affairs operational model. iEnvisionTM will enhance a Medical Affairs team’s efficiency and quality, improve global effectiveness and alignment by connecting HQ and country operations, reduce costs by improving global scalability and facilitating the concept of a Medical Affairs center of excellence, and improve overall decision-making by creating a ‘data forward’ line of sight across Medical Affairs. The partnership with Ardian and GHO enables us to enhance our already significant investment in the platform in terms of both transitioning our existing solutions to iEnvisionTM and bringing additional new solutions, purpose-built to support Medical Affairs business needs, to market in a timely and efficient manner.”



Brian Hepburn, CEO of Envision, said “This partnership with Ardian and GHO Capital provides the resources, expertise, and market knowledge for Envision to realize the next stage of its development and become the leading solution provider to the Medical Affairs departments within the biopharmaceutical industry. We are uniquely positioned to support our clients via our in-depth, strategically focused, scientific communication capabilities in combination with our expanding range of technology solutions that support compliant and transparent communication of scientific evidence. With the support of Ardian and GHO Capital, we will continue to invest in these core competencies and further extend the market reach of our enterprise technology platform, iEnvisionTM.”



Simon Cottle, Managing Director of Ardian Mid Cap Buyout in London, said “After analyzing the outsourced Medical Affairs services and software market, we identified Envision as having the highest potential for further growth. Their management team has done a great job in creating a market-leading proposition and we look forward to working with them in the next stage of the business’ development.”



Bruno Ladriere, Managing Director of Ardian Mid Cap Buyout in London, added “We believe that Ardian’s transparent management-centric culture, coupled with our global ability to support development through organic and external growth, were the key elements in winning the support of Envision’s management and executing this acquisition.”



Mark Branganza, Partner at GHO Capital, added “Envision is a high growth company operating in the attractive healthcare outsourced services sub-sector with a strong platform and an international, blue-chip customer base. The opportunity to partner with Ardian and the management team, allowing us to pool our significant expertise in consulting and healthcare IT, was therefore extremely compelling for our fund. We look forward to our partnership in supporting the next phase of Envision’s continued growth.”



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 to become a leading provider of evidence communication services and Medical Affairs solutions encompassing all aspects of scientifically driven data dissemination activities required to support a successful access to market strategy for new biopharma compounds.



This capability of the organization is further enhanced with industry-leading, complementary technology solutions across the Medical Affairs responsibilities. Envision has grown steadily under consistent leadership across its three core business areas in support of the Medical Affairs team that include (i) Evidence Communication – including strategic publication planning, data dissemination services, medical education, and Market Access communications; (ii) Technology Solutions – design, development, implementation, and support of innovative and strategic management software, purpose-built for life-science clients, including, publication planning and management (Datavision®), clearance approval (Clear®), activity request management (Visiontracker®), workflow management for HEOR activities (Visiontracker HEORTM), searchable repository for the sharing of appropriate educational and training materials (LibraryTM), and next generation solution for managing medical information enquiries (MedinfoTM); (iii) Consulting Solutions – policy, process, compliance, and guideline consultancy to life-science companies.



Envision currently has ten offices, three in the United Kingdom – Horsham, Wilmslow, and London; five in the United States – Philadelphia, PA, Southport, CT, Madison, NJ, Stirling, NJ, Glastonbury, CT; and two in Asia Pacific – Tokyo and Sydney. The company employs approximately 450 team members, including over 185 highly qualified and experienced in-house medical writers and a more than 80-strong technology solutions team providing platform development and customer support. Envision currently provides service and product solutions to more than 75 client companies, including 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.



About Ardian

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$55bn managed or advised in Europe, North America, or Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty, and entrepreneurship.

Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 410 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, and Luxembourg. The company offers its 470 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes through Ardian Direct Funds (comprising Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth, and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Funds of Funds (comprising primary, early secondary, and secondary activities), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Real Estate, and customized mandate investment solutions with Ardian Mandates.


About GHO Capital

Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, was founded in 2014 as a specialist healthcare investment adviser based in London. Its vision is to apply global capabilities and perspectives to build a world-class healthcare specialist private equity firm by recognising and seizing the highly attractive and underpenetrated European market opportunity. GHO Capital has a powerful combination of transaction, investment, and industry skills which sets it apart from traditional private equity firms. For further information please visit www.ghocapital.com.
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