Navigant acquires US life sciences consultancy Quorum Consulting
Global professional services firm Navigant Consulting has acquired Quorum Consulting for an undisclosed fee. The San Franciscan firm will join Navigant’s life sciences practice, which is looking to expand its market footprint.
Changes are afoot within the life sciences industry, in response to disruptive trends within the sector. Global health-care reforms require companies to demonstrate how their products improve patient outcomes, lower costs, or both. The vast majority of leaders understand the need for change in terms of business practice and personnel management; something that consulting firms are well placed to capitalise on by offering transformation advisory services to the sector.
Founded in 1996, Quorum Consulting is a consultancy aimed at the medical sector. Primarily, the firm offers its services to healthcare innovators, helping them to navigate the economic, reimbursement, and financial issues that affect the success of new medical technologies. Quorum helps develop clinical evidence and outcomes data to support payer coverage policies and product adoption. Quorum’s services to clients include strategic product planning, reimbursement policy and government affairs, health economics and outcomes research, and market access programs, while their clients presently include innovative pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and molecular diagnostic companies.
Now, after 21 years in business, the firm is preparing for a new chapter in its history, having been claimed for acquisition by the international professional services company, Navigant. The deal comes almost exactly a year after the acquisition that brought environment and energy consultancy Ecofys into the fold. Navigant currently operate in four main practice areas; Disputes, Investigations & Economics; Energy; Financial, Risk & Compliance Advisory; and Healthcare.
Navigant, which has acquired all of the substantial assets of Quorum Consulting, will gain the firm’s San Francisco-based workforce of around 40 professionals. The Quorum team, including founder and CEO Kuo Bianchini Tong, will expand Navigant’s capabilities in the life sciences industry, further strengthened by the addition of Quorum’s methodologies.
Tong has worked with clients to understand how economic, financial, and reimbursement forces can be managed and how to influence product acceptance and utilisation, across a number of different clinical specialties and therapeutic categories. These include haematology and oncology; solid organ and bone marrow transplantation; infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis; cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics, among others.
Commenting on Quorum’s new ownership, Tong said, “Data-driven decision-making and strategic planning pertaining to reimbursement, health economics and outcomes research, and market access is vital to the success of life sciences companies. The addition of Quorum’s offerings to Navigant’s deep industry expertise will help enable our clients to capitalise on their market opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Eduardo Schur, Managing Director and Global Life Sciences Practice Leader at Navigant, said, “In today’s life sciences industry, it is critical that companies understand the conditions necessary to optimise access. Quorum has created a proven methodology to help clients achieve greater market access for their innovations. Quorum has been highly successful and we are excited by the opportunity to develop and expand their capabilities and service offerings into other areas of our life sciences and healthcare practices.”
M&A in consulting
The deal follows a range of other consulting industry M&A activity in the healthcare sector. Earlier in October, French-headquartered Atos completed the acquisition of healthcare consulting companies Pursuit Healthcare Advisors, Conduent’s Healthcare Provider Consulting and Conduent’s Breakaway Group, for an undisclosed fee. As health insurance costs continue to grow rapidly around the globe, care providers are looking to consulting firms to assist with the deployment of technological solutions, to add value and cut costs of their services.
