Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal -- ThreeWire Inc., a consulting firm that helps medical-device companies target consumers, is expanding its staff as it prepares to pursue a new set of customers: pharmaceutical companies.
Mark Summers founded the firm in 2000, with a plan to craft direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns for med-tech firms who have long aimed sales pitches more at doctors than potential patients.
In 2005, ThreeWire expanded by offering a service that lets med-tech firms outsource enrollment in clinical trials. Three years later, that service makes up about 70 percent of revenue and has contributed significantly to Threewire’s growth, said Summers, CEO. It now has 70 employees, up from 45 last year.
The Eden Prairie company is aiming to market its clinical-trial outsourcing service to drug companies, using much the same model it has with med-tech firms. So far, it’s hired two people to focus on the pharmaceutical industry, and plans to add more employees if it’s successful in making inroads into the market. Summers is confident its strategy will succeed, saying enrollment in drug trials can be sluggish due to problems with the process. For now, drug companies often rely on patients to respond to ads. Intermediaries then collect their information and give it to clinical-research centers and physicians. It’s not unusual, however, for doctors to not reconnect with those potential patients, Summers said.
“Our experience has been most of those follow-ups never happen because they don’t have time to call the patient.”
Consultancy adds services
Health Dimensions Group has bought an Atlanta-based consulting firm, expanding its presence in the South.
Health Dimensions, a Brooklyn Park management-consulting company that targets the health care market, didn’t disclose how much it paid for Fowler Healthcare Affiliates Inc. The company said in a statement that the deal will allow it to offer a broader range of services.
Fowler’s consulting practice, for instance, specializes in post-acute care, or services that help patients recover after they’ve been released from the hospital. Health Dimensions, meanwhile, targets large health systems, as well as senior-housing and long-term-care providers.
Health Dimensions already has offices in Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin and Virginia.
Video firm sees ‘green’ growth
Video Guidance is seeing more business these days from customers who want to use its videoconferencing technology as part of plans to become more environmentally friendly.
The firm’s latest deal is with Great River Energy, a Maple Grove-based cooperative that provides energy in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Great River is aiming to have its new headquarters certified as a LEED Platinum project. Videoconferencing can help firms meet LEED requirements by reducing electricity use and lowering the amount of time employees spend traveling, said Mike Werch, CEO of the firm. “In the last 18 months we’ve seen that corporations are more concerned with becoming green, and this is one way they can cut back on emissions.”
