Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services Redefines Healthcare Outsourcing to Meet Pharma's Challenges

London (ots/PRNewswire) -

UDG Healthcare plc (formerly United Drug plc), a leading
international provider of services to healthcare manufacturers and
pharmacies, has integrated its sales, marketing and medical service
offerings within one division to better meet the needs of
pharmaceutical clients. In addition to delivering its global services
more effectively, this meets the industry demand for greater
flexibility, insight and innovation from service providers. The new
division, Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services, combines eight
service areas under the Ashfield division umbrella, allowing the
newly created cross-functional business approach to enhance future
client engagements.

The global healthcare environment is increasingly complex and
characterised by: an increase in specialty products; greater
regulatory control; reimbursement difficulties; healthcare
professional access challenges; better informed patients; increased
use of technology and media influence and continued pressure on
pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate real world patient benefits
to justify treatment costs. Ashfield, as a leading international
outsourced service provider for the pharmaceutical industry, is
responding to these needs by utilising a partnership approach to
bring greater insight, more flexibility and ingenuity to its services
for global clients.

Bringing together highly successful individual business brands
including Ashfield In2Focus, Business Edge, Pharmexx, InforMed,
Watermeadow Medical, Pharma Marketing Academy and Universal
WorldEvents under the Ashfield brand provides even more value to
clients through a cross-functional business approach. This enables
Ashfield to develop solutions that harness excellence across their
areas of expertise and work in partnership with clients to ensure
impact, effectiveness and efficiency.

Ashfield's eight areas of expertise are:

- Ashfield Commercial;
- Ashfield Clinical;
- Ashfield Healthcare Communications;
- Ashfield Insight and Performance;
- Ashfield Market Access;
- Ashfield Meetings and Events;
- Ashfield Pharmacovigilance;
- Ashfield Medical Information.

The Ashfield portfolio provides solutions throughout the product
lifecycle: in the pre-launch phase services include managing
investigator meetings and developing scientific communications,
through to organising advisory boards and conducting the market
research required to develop brand strategy. Once products are
approved, Ashfield provides marketing consultancy, designs and
organises launch conferences and implements sales force effectiveness
programmes to ensure launch success then delivers sales solutions via
Ashfield's multi-channel field and call centre services. In addition
Ashfield provides the clinical education, patient support programmes
and medical information services to ensure patients and healthcare
professionals receive the information and support they need.

Chris Corbin, Managing Director of Ashfield Commercial & Medical
Services commented:

"This transformation of our business allows us to deliver more for
the industry, healthcare professionals and patients through our
combined expertise and insight, whilst retaining the ingenuity and
energy that our companies are known for. We have always put our
clients and customers first and uniting these businesses in one
division will help us address their challenges even more
effectively."

Partnering with Ashfield, an international outsourcing
organisation that offers breadth and depth of experience across many
areas of expertise, allows organisations to work together in an
honest and open way to identify the challenges and work through
potential solutions. Through an integration of services and a
collaborative culture, Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services is
able to harness excellence across its areas of expertise, creating a
synergy that delivers more than the sum of the parts, to accelerate
their clients' success.

For further information about Ashfield Commercial & Medical
Services, please visit the division's new website:
http://www.ashfieldhealthcare.com

Resources available:

- Spokespeople:
- Chris Corbin, Managing Director, Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services &
UDG Healthcare Board Director
- Julian Thompkins, Regional President Europe, Ashfield Commercial & Medical
Services
- Gareth Davies, Divisional Marketing Director, Ashfield Commercial &
Medical Services
- Nicola Burns, CEO, Ashfield Meetings & Events

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services

- Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services has acquired 16 companies over the
last 14 years and delivers local and international expertise in 22 countries
worldwide.

- The culture that underpins the Ashfield Division and UDG Healthcare is
built around five core values: Quality; Partnerships; Ingenuity; Expertise and Energy,
and Ashfield's ambition is to grow and expand its business internationally by
sustaining the ethos and drive that distinguishes the Company in every location in
which it exists.

Ashfield's eight areas of expertise are:

- Ashfield Commercial

A specialist strategic commercial team that listens, understands
and provides international specialist expertise to find comprehensive
sales & marketing solutions, then implements with speed, ingenuity
and energy to deliver exceptional results.

- Ashfield Clinical

Ashfield Clinical designs and delivers solutions focused on
improving patient clinical outcomes. It prides itself on adding value
and creating tailored clinical solutions to meet the needs of
patients, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies.

- Ashfield Healthcare Communications

A global healthcare communications business with strong
therapeutic experience that turns science into meaningful
communications to support informed clinical decision-making.

- Ashfield Insight and Performance

Ashfield Insight & Performance delivers services to support the
industry from early-stage insight gathering, through business
analytics and research, to assessing and delivering excellence in
sales, marketing and leadership solutions.

- Ashfield Market Access

Offering comprehensive, experienced consulting and account
management to support strong formulary positioning.

- Ashfield Medical Information

Our highly regarded medical information services provide compliant
and accurate information to patients and healthcare professionals for
pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device clients.

- Ashfield Meetings & Events

A full service global event management company specialising in
serving the healthcare sector and delivering seamless local service
from conferences and investigator meetings to incentive programmes,
advisory boards and award ceremonies.

- Ashfield Pharmacovigilance

Partnering globally with pharmaceutical companies, biotech and
animal health organisations, Ashfield Pharmacovigilance delivers
outstanding pharmacovigilance expertise and risk management services.

About UDG Healthcare plc

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, UDG Healthcare plc is a
leading international provider of services to healthcare
manufacturers and pharmaceutical retailers, with operations in 22
countries including the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and
Belgium.

Following the companies rebrand to UDG Healthcare plc in October
2013 the Group now operates across four key areas: Aquilant
Specialist Healthcare Services, Ashfield Commercial and Medical
Services, United Drug Supply Chain Services and Sharp Packaging
Services.

Aquilant Specialist Healthcare Services is a leading provider of
specialist healthcare and scientific products and services, providing
out-sourced sales, marketing, distribution and engineering for the
medical and scientific sectors. The financial results for Aquilant
are reported under United Drug Supply Chain Services.

Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services is a global leader in the
provision of contract sales outsourcing services to pharmaceutical
manufacturers with operations in major markets including Continental
Europe, the UK, North America and a presence in South America and
Asia. Ashfield provides sales teams, tele-sales, market research,
business intelligence, market access, nurse educators, medical
information, pharmacovigilance, medical communications and event
management to healthcare companies in 22 countries. It focuses on
supporting healthcare professionals and patients at all stages of the
product life cycle.

Sharp Packaging Services is a leading international provider of
pharmaceutical contract packaging and clinical trials materials
services with facilities in the US, UK, Dutch and Belgian markets.

United Drug Supply Chain Services is the largest pharmaceutical
wholesaler in Ireland. It is also the market leader in contract
distribution outsourcing (pre-wholesaling) in Ireland and has
achieved the No. 1 position in the UK through its joint venture
business UniDrug Distribution Group. United Drug Supply Chain
Services provides logistics services to healthcare companies,
pharmacies and hospitals in the UK and Ireland.

For more information visit: http://www.ashfieldhealthcare.com and
http://www.udghealthcare.com

For enquiries:
Gareth Davies, Divisional Marketing Director
Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services
Tel: +1-215-688-1975

Clare Lucker, Director
MMS PR
Tel: +44(0)7979-694931

ots Originaltext: UDG Healthcare
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