Telerx to acquire C3i, expanding its outsourced customer-interaction services globally

Telerx (Horsham, PA), which has been growing its voice and online capabilities for life sciences and consumer packaged goods (CPG) since the 1980s, will acquire C3i (Morristown, NJ) in a transaction expected to close by the end of this quarter. The combination can be looked on two ways: enabling Telerx to expand its range of customer interaction services to a global market through C3i’s global footprint; and as a way to add C3i services, such as training on hardware platforms, help-desk and similar support for pharma sales teams, to the Telerx customer base. C3i is, for example, one of the solution partners of Veeva, the Pleasanton, CA, company whose cloud-based customer relationship-management platform is a popular option among pharma companies.

Linda Schellenger, Telerx president, tells Pharmaceutical Commerce that the company’s core functions are providing healthcare professionals and patients reimbursement support, adherence programs, and drug safety (pharmacovigilance). Last year, it acquired Sentrx, one of the leading outsourced providers of adverse-event reporting. Most of Telerx’s business is with life sciences companies (it is a subisidiary of Merck), but has a substantial business in CPG as well. Through that CPG expertise, it expects to bring more sophisticated multichannel marketing capabilities to pharma. “CPG is ahead of life sciences in using the full range of multichannel tools, such as voice, text and social media,” she says, noting that regulatory constraints on pharma is keeping its involvement limited. “But it will be opening up as regulations become clear, and we’ll have a leg up when it does."