WorldOne acquires Sermo

NEW YORK and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldOne (http://www.worldone.com), the global leader in healthcare insights and intelligence, today announced that it has acquired Sermo (http://www.sermo.com), the largest online community of U.S. physicians. In the six years since its launch, Sermo amassed a membership of 130,000 physicians and hundreds of clients, including eight of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world.

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This past year WorldOne successfully launched a new division, WorldOne Interactive, focused on leveraging emerging technologies and progressive social applications to connect and engage healthcare professionals globally. With the acquisition of Sermo and its leading discussion and crowdsourcing platform for physicians, WorldOne considerably expands its interactive and digital engagement capabilities. WorldOne already boasts a global network of 1.7 million healthcare professionals, including over 1 million verified physicians across 80 countries; adding Sermo's membership will further increase reach, allow for unprecedented client list match rates, expand research opportunities, and serve as a catalyst for increased physician discussion, insights and collaboration.

"Sermo fits in perfectly with our strategy to extend our digital footprint across healthcare market research and enhance our growing portfolio of innovative engagement solutions," said Peter Kirk, CEO of WorldOne. "Sermo has proven that sustaining an active, engaged community can result in higher interest in and response to market research as well as new promotional opportunities. Combining Sermo's technology and social media expertise with WorldOne's global scale enables us to rapidly accelerate our growth while offering the most enriching, collaborative online environment for physicians anywhere in the world."

"As Sermo grew the most vibrant online physician community in the U.S. and, more recently, provided clients more robust research and promotion opportunities, clients asked for global reach and more key specialists," said Tim Davenport, CEO of Sermo. "WorldOne adds both of these overnight, while Sermo greatly augments WorldOne's online and interactive business."

Through the Sermo acquisition, WorldOne assembles the largest global community of physicians online.

About WorldOne

WorldOne is the largest healthcare data collection company in the world serving the market research industry for over a decade. Headquartered in New York with 16 regional offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, WorldOne offers clients online and offline access to medical professionals in over 80 countries through a range of differentiated products and services. WorldOne's global network includes over 1.7 million fully verified healthcare professionals, who in 2011 completed nearly half a million online surveys, answering over 20 million questions.

About Sermo

Sermo is the largest online physician community in the United States, with more than 130,000 physicians spanning 68 specialties. All Sermo members are verified and credentialed physicians who collaborate on cases and exchange observations to improve patient care, discuss drugs and devices and share information on new therapies and innovations. Sermo also provides a way to target and engage physicians by providing access to its community for clients that need fast, actionable insights into treatments, medications and devices.

SOURCE WorldOne