Heartbeat Experts Expands Pharmaceutical Clients in Emerging Markets

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Heartbeat Experts, the global leader in stakeholder management solutions for the life sciences industry, announced today increased revenue and expanded clients across Brazil, Russia, China, India and Korea. Heartbeat Experts’ reported combined revenue from these markets grew 50% in the third quarter of 2012.

“Our clients are investing heavily in marketing and medical teams in China, so we expanded our local headcount accordingly”

The company reported acquiring 15 new clients across these emerging markets. The new projects focused on pharmaceutical products launching in varied therapy areas including oncology, cardiology, diabetes, rheumatology, respiratory, infectious disease, immunology, neurology and gastroenterology. Seven of the new clients purchased key opinion leader (KOL) identification projects and six purchased projects focused on achieving market access and reimbursement. Eight of the 15 clients launched stakeholder communities to engage stakeholders for their launching products.

Heartbeat Experts also announced increased headcount at field offices in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea. China saw the largest growth with the addition of seven client-facing staff including three Director-level staff responsible for business development.

Larry Cohen, President of Heartbeat Experts, said, “This success comes down to serving our clients locally with a business development, marketing and services team in each of the BRICK markets. Stakeholder management is driven at the country level, and our local presence gives us a competitive advantage. In addition to our branded pharmaceutical and device business, we’ve secured generics and biosimilar manufacturers as new clients, who are focusing more on KOLs to secure approval and increase uptake for their specialty products.”

“Our clients are investing heavily in marketing and medical teams in China, so we expanded our local headcount accordingly,” said Keren Priyadarshini, VP Asia-Pacific. “Across APAC, companies are launching competitive products with a high-price that require KOLs and key stakeholders to educate the specialist community and it’s our job to help our clients engage these stakeholders.”

Rosangela Deamo, VP Latin America, added, “In Brazil we’re facing an evolution of committees and organizations that are involved in determining reimbursement and market access for life sciences companies. By expanding our local presence and knowledge in Brazil, we are in a prime position to uncover key stakeholders within these organizations and committees that will help our pharmaceutical clients get approval and market their products.”

Heartbeat Experts is the leading stakeholder management solution provider serving 20 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and 18 of the top 20 medical device companies. Heartbeat Experts provides software and data for KOL identification, KOL management, pricing and reimbursement, formulary access, regulatory affairs as well as a suite of stakeholder engagement products including virtual advisory boards, HCP communities and market research. With an extensive local presence, Heartbeat Experts provides these services from eighteen offices worldwide.