Drug Safety Alliance Rebrands As Ashfield Pharmacovigilance

Completed Integration with Ashfield Division of UDG Healthcare Strengthens Company’s Service Offering

Leading pharmacovigilance services provider, Drug Safety Alliance (DSA), announces recently its official rebranding as Ashfield Pharmacovigilance. This completes the company’s complete integration into the Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services division of UDG Healthcare plc, which started with DSA’s acquisition by UDG in 2012. Over the past three years DSA began its rebranding efforts, gradually changing logos to ensure a smooth transition—both internally and for its clients.

Ashfield Pharmacovigilance provides pharmacovigilance services within the Ashfield organization, which combines eight areas of expertise under the division umbrella, allowing a cross-functional business approach to enhance current and future client engagements. In addition to delivering its global services more effectively, this integration meets the industry demand for greater flexibility, insight and innovation from service providers.

According to Ashfield Pharmacovigilance CEO, Susan Gordon, UDG and DSA were a natural pairing, due to UDG’s focus on providing healthcare services globally. DSA’s expertise and offerings, coupled with the medical information and call center services provided within the Ashfield organization, allow Ashfield Pharmacovigilance to provide end-to-end, high-quality and full-service pharmacovigilance solutions to meet global regulations.

Mary Anne Greenberg, Regional President of North America for the Ashfield Division, remarks, “With a vision of expanding our medical affairs services, we spent several years finding the right partner for pharmacovigilance. DSA was acquired in 2012. Under Susan’s strategic leadership, DSA has successfully expanded services in the US and other countries as well as providing integrated services along with Ashfield Medical Information and Healthcare Communications.”

Ashfield Pharmacovigilance currently has on staff 85 full-time employees and 15 full-time contractors. It will maintain its office in Durham, North Carolina as well as its staff of PV experts. Its global pharmacovigilance services include: comprehensive case management, global aggregate report development, literature search services, risk management services, and signal surveillance activities. Trend Wadford, Director of Business Development, explains, “Being part of Ashfield allows us the opportunity to extend to our clients an array of services globally to address their medical information and drug safety challenges."

Notes Gordon, “Ashfield Pharmacovigilance will continue to be devoted to providing comprehensive, state-of-the-art PV services to clients. Our new name is a better reflection of our highly focused role in the Ashfield service offering of comprehensive solutions across medical information and commercial services to pharmaceutical clients.”

About Ashfield Pharmacovigilance
Offering over 15 years of experience in pharmacovigilance services, Ashfield Pharmacovigilance, formerly Drug Safety Alliance, Inc., is recognized as the go-to specialist in delivering world-class safety and risk management services to meet the ever-changing complex regulations and demands for product safety. A range of safety experience covers the pharmaceutical, biotech, consumer heath/over-the-counter, medical device and animal health categories. For more information, visit www.ashfieldhealthcare.com.

About Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services
Ashfield employs over 5,500 people in 20 countries, working together in a cross-functional business approach to deliver more value to clients. In addition to pharmacovigilance, Ashfield provides solutions throughout the product lifecycle. Pre-launch services include managing investigator meetings and developing scientific communications, organizing advisory boards and conducting the market research required to develop brand strategy. Once products are approved, Ashfield offers marketing consulting services, design and organization of launch conferences, development of market access and payer strategies, implementation of sales force effectiveness programs to ensure launch success and delivery of sales solutions via Ashfield’s multi-channel field and call center services. In addition, Ashfield provides the clinical education, patient support programs and medical information services to ensure patients and healthcare professionals receive the information and support they need to improve patient outcome.