Indegene Lifesystems, India's largest provider of medical education and medical marketing services has acquired MedCases, LLC, a leading provider of interactive Continuing Medical Education (CME) in the US.

With this acquisition, the Indegene worldwide group, based in the United States, S.E. Asia, Australia and India, expands its growing presence in the global CME market. Since 2000, Indegene has been developing CME programmes in partnership with leading medical associations, teaching institutions and clinical experts across India and Asia, as well as through licensing agreements with leading international institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University, a press release stated.

Since 1998 MedCases has been a pioneer in the exciting area of peer-reviewed, clinical education programmes using highly interactive simulated patient encounters. It uses a proprietary system to deliver comprehensive, cost-effective learning with applications for physicians, medical students, pharmaceutical companies, academic medical centres, and healthcare delivery organizations.

MedCases is accredited by the Accreditation Council of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) in the United States and has been the CME provider of choice for several thousands of physicians in the US. The company has delivered more than 175 CME programmes and has a library of more than 500 proprietary teaching cases spread across 20 medical specialties.

Accredited CME is a well-recognized need across the world by physicians. This has resulted in an ever-growing trend among pharmaceutical companies to extend commercial support to CME programmes related to their therapy areas of interest. The worldwide market for CME is estimated to be in excess of US$ 5 billion of which the US market is US$ 2.25 billion. The annual market for CME in India is estimated to be approximately Rs 500 crore, the release added..

The new acquisition further aligns Indegene's business to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Last year, Indegene acquired MedSN, Inc, USA, a leader in promotional medical marketing, sales training and competitive intelligence services with more than 50 employees across offices in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Chicago.

According to Dr. Sanjay Parikh, director, Indegene, "The MedCases acquisition serves as a cornerstone of our comprehensive CME strategy for doctors across the world including Asia. Our accredited CME programmes will serve to enhance the learning experiences of physicians about the latest guidelines and therapeutic options. We will also work with clinical experts in Asia to develop fresh CME material and deploy it across the world using the proprietary MedCases platform."

"In the US, we are continuing to pioneer a unique model for providing medical education and promotional marketing and sales training services that leverage delivery capabilities and physician relationships from multiple geographies," adds Dr Rajesh Nair, managing director of Indegene Lifesystems. "Indegene is poised to fundamentally alter the dynamics of the industry by leveraging its unique hybrid global delivery model."

"We see this transaction as the next step toward establishing a world-class pharmaceutical and medical devices services firm," concludes Sriram Nadathur, director of Nadathur Fareast, a leading private equity firm and investor in the Indegene Group. "Indegene's expansion represents an important step in our plan to create a consortium of global companies that address every need of the pharmaceutical industry from drug discovery to marketing."

Indegene is a global provider of knowledge-intensive services that span a full spectrum of integrated scientific promotions, medical education, and business analytical solutions for pharmaceutical, medical device, and health care organizations. Indegene has offices across India, Asia Pacific (Singapore, Malayasia, Indonesia, Philippines), Australia as well as subsidiaries in the United States.

MedCases, Inc., is a highly regarded and innovative leading provider of medical e-learning solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. MedCases specializes in the creation of rich original medical education content and programmes that combine interactive, case-based learning with proprietary technology.