W2O, the leading independent provider of analytics-driven, digital-first marketing communications to the healthcare sector, announced the acquisition of Arcus Medica. A recognized leader in medical and scientific communications, Arcus brings a deep bench of doctoral-level experts to W2O who specialize in translating complex clinical and scientific data into clear, meaningful content to help brands influence key audiences in today’s evolving healthcare environment.
This acquisition represents a vital move by W2O to disrupt the status quo in medical and scientific communications by creating a fully integrated communications agency that uses proprietary data and analytics to fuel scientific strategy, peer-to-peer medical engagement and patient-centered narration for clients. Given the highly complex and fragmented nature of the healthcare industry, companies and their brands require data-informed insights and clear, compelling storytelling to drive value. W2O and Arcus share a passion for uncovering deep scientific acuities to build best-in-class strategy and deliver high quality communications that resonate.
“Arcus is a trailblazer in the field of medical and scientific communications, consistently following the data to get to the right outcome for its clients. The addition of Arcus to the W2O family significantly enhances our medical and scientific communications expertise and enriches our offering in this key discipline,” said Jim Weiss, W2O founder and CEO. “Together, we will continue to place science at the center of everything we do, supplementing this prowess with unmatched data analytics and insights, robust strategy and creative know-how to ensure we deliver maximum impact to client business, from the bench to the bedside.”
With the integration of Arcus, W2O’s scientific and medical communications team will comprise approximately 40 best-in-class employees, including 16 doctoral level experts. Arcus co-founders Mary Seideman, MD, PhD, Stan Eapen, PharmD, and Jonathan Seideman, PhD, will all serve in leadership roles at W2O arcus, which will be an integral part of W2O’s single profit and loss (P&L) operation. These tenured industry experts, along with their seasoned team of communicators, will work closely with W2O’s scientific strategy team run by Ujwal Pyati, PhD, and other multidisciplinary teams across the company—including data analysts, brand strategists, creatives and media specialists—to drive differentiated communications and meet diverse client objectives.
“We founded Arcus on the premise of serving as strategic partners to our clients by providing world-class communications attuned to the unique challenges of the healthcare market. We couldn’t be more excited about our affiliation with W2O, given Jim and his team’s commitment to becoming the best by understanding every client’s business and treating it as its own, delivering the highest quality work and results and applying data analytics to every program it touches,” said Mary Seideman, Partner, W2O arcus. “Our partnership is genuinely symbiotic, and we look forward to working together to achieve something truly great for our dynamic clients and remarkable people.”
Earlier this year, W2O announced its partnership with New York based investment firm New Mountain Capital, enabling the company to support continued growth and accelerated scaling to meet the evolving needs of its clients in an increasingly digital and data-centric world. The partnership will take W2O to the next level of talent, capability, geographic and technology expansion to serve clients better and more expansively than ever while maintaining the independent, entrepreneurial spirit upon which the company was founded.
“At W2O we actively listen to our clients and continually enhance our capabilities based on what they ask for and what we foresee them needing to move their business forward,” Weiss added. “Integrating Arcus’ scientific and medical communications capability into our expansive, multidisciplinary service offering will ensure we are more competitively positioned and favored in the healthcare communications marketplace, ultimately enabling us to meet the changing demands of our clients and provide our people with greater career growth opportunities.”
Both companies are privately held, and the financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. Delancey Street Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Arcus in the transaction.