Instinctif Partners announces record Healthcare sector client wins in 2015

Samantha Bartel, Managing Partner of Instinctif Partners Dubai and Head of the Middle East Healthcare practice commented:

“Our mission in the region is to provide strategic communications consultation to clients by combining local expertise and creative thinking with our specialist communications skills. A primary focus is developing our healthcare practice. There is immense growth potential for this sector in the Middle East, with a rapidly growing middle class and high demand for both general and specialised services. As more regional head offices begin to embrace the idea of using social media to tell their corporate stories and opt for regional websites to promote their brands, our business is responding with innovative and timely solutions.”

Recent high-profile Middle East retainer wins include the regional (MENA/SSA) business of Astellas Pharma Inc., a global pharmaceutical company, specialising in Oncology, Urology, and Haematology. Several product launches have been held for the company in markets including Algeria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The team has also launched the femMED brand in the UAE for NewBridge Pharmaceuticals. Instinctif recently won the communications retainer for a major American rare disease drug maker, who established their Middle East office in the UAE last year. The brief covers press office management and a corporate video.

Instinctif’s global Life Sciences business, headquartered out of London has also had a bumper year during which it won an A-list of important retainers, including Abzena and Abcam – both UK AIM-listed companies providing technologies and services supporting drug discovery, development and manufacturing. The team welcomed back Belgium EURONEXT-listed Ablynx, a company developing novel biological drugs, with its lead product now in Phase III. With significant skills and reach in Australasia, the team has also won several Australasian ASX-listed companies - most notably Avita Medical, which markets a medical device to regenerate skin for burns and wound care, and Adherium, operating in the digital health space and with a major deal with AstraZeneca, which markets a device that improves adherence and outcomes for respiratory drugs.

In 2015, Instinctif Partners’ London-based Healthcare and Life Sciences teams won work from over 20 new clients, including private and public companies, as well as investment funds and service organisations.

Sue Charles, Managing Partner of Instinctif Partners Global Life Sciences practice, renown for her pioneering communications work in the media launch of Dolly the cloned sheep commented:

“Our core strength is supporting organisations at the interface of innovation and wealth creation – to help them communicate their innovative science and new medical devices and treatments. With any new technologies, communications is a critical tool to ensure the innovations are adopted by customers and accepted and appreciated by the wider publics and society. In a sector that burns billions in cash ahead of any new product launch, it is also vital that investors are excited by the potential and can see the value in new innovations. It is truly an honour to be able to work with so many entrepreneurs and game-changing companies, in areas such as stem cells, gene therapy, immune-oncology, personalised medicine, the microbiome and genetic-based diagnostics. Whilst the individual brands of many of our early-stage clients are not widely known, they are changing the health outlook for all of us, and it’s exciting to be part of it.”

Instinctif Partners has offices in the UK, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the UAE, South Africa, Hong Kong, China and Australia.