CRO

IMS-Quintiles sets up post-megamerger management team

As both healthcare data and consultancy firm IMS Health and Quintiles, the world’s largest CRO, begin the process of becoming one giant $19 billion entity, the two have released names of the key figures who will lead the new company.

As previously announced the dual chair and CEO role will go to Ari Bousbib, currently the chief of IMS Health, with those reporting under him set to include Michael McDonnell, EVP and CFO, and James Erlinger, EVP and general counsel.

On the clinical research and commercial side, the main execs include Tom Pike, vice chairman and president of R&D solutions (and currently Quintiles CEO); Jon Resnick, president of real-world insights; and Scott Evangelista, president of contract sales organization.

“I am proud to be part of a leadership team with deep industry knowledge, a proven track record of success and a commitment to transforming healthcare for the better,” said Bousbib.

“That commitment extends across the 50,000 talented professionals who will soon become part of one global team. Together, we are making excellent progress on our integration planning and are confident that we will be ready for a strong start on day one of the merger.” The merger is set to be formally completed by the end of the year.

Announced back in May, the surprise merger will see NC-based Quintiles ($Q) merge with Danbury-headquartered IMS Health in an all-stock, $9 billion merger-of-equals transaction (although IMS shareholders will own a collectively higher amount of stock).

The newly created company will be named “Quintiles IMS Holdings” and builds on the broad offering Quintiles has been building up over the past 5 years, which has seen it run CRO, product marketing and sales, as well as consultancy services to the life sciences industry.

But the markets did not react well to news of the merger, with shares in both companies dropping sharply on 3 May, when the deal was announced, with IMS Health down 7.5% on the news in morning trading, while Quintiles was down by more than 8%.

Quintiles has rebounded however in the intervening months, seeing a dip in July that saw it hover just over $61 a share, but was at end of play yesterday up to $77.42, with a market cap of over $9 billion.

IMS Health ($IMS) has seen a similar dip and rebound in the past month, with shares at $23.74 in July but ending up yesterday to nearly $30, with a market cap of just under $10 billion. Both companies also ended the day more than 2% up at the end of trade on Monday.