(By Balaseshan) Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.'s (NYSE:IPG) GolinHarris unit has agreed to buy UK healthcare communications firm Virgo HEALTH for an undisclosed sum, in a move to expand its healthcare practice.
Virgo HEALTH will retain its name. Founders and joint chief executives Angie Wiles and Sarah Matthew would continue in their current roles, reporting to Fred Cook, GolinHarris CEO, and work closely with Matt Neale and Jon Hughes, co-presidents, GH International.
As part of the agreement, Wiles and Matthew will build the Virgo brand in North America and beyond, and in addition, they will play a senior leadership role in GolinHarris.
In addition to expanding the Virgo HEALTH brand in the U.S. and beyond, GolinHarris is forming a new global, digitally focused specialty health practice called Go Digital Health.
Go Digital Health brings together Virgo HEALTH's healthcare heritage with GolinHarris' deep digital expertise – fortified with the recent acquisition of interactive agency FUSE – to offer clients access to the leading thinking in digital health.
Angie Wiles and Sarah Matthew founded Virgo HEALTH in 2003 after successful careers with pharmaceutical companies and large, publicly-owned agencies with a mission to raise the bar in healthcare communications.
Today, the 60-member London-based agency provides a full range of services in healthcare communications across three core business units – Virgo HEALTH Communications (medical healthcare PR), Virgo HEALTH Education (medical education) and Virgo HEALTH Consumer (consumer health and OTC PR).
IPG is trading down 1.14% at $11.25 on Thursday. The stock has been trading between $6.73 and $12.91 for the past 52 weeks.