Contacts:

Emily Pihlquist, for
Makovsky & Company Inc.
(212) 508-9690

Patrick Aysseh, for
Informed Medical Communications
(646) 358-1304
pr_at_informedmedical-dot-com


For Immediate Release:

New Network Designed to Meet Client Need for Better Insights into Physician/Patient Dialogue

NEW YORK, NY, EDISON, NJ and SEATTLE, WA - April 5, 2005 - Informed Medical Communications (IMC), a medical marketing network resulting from the recent merger of The Peer Group and HealthTalk, announced its management team appointments. Led by CEO Robert Goodman, IMC selected six executives with a broad range of client service experience to lead the new company.

“Drug efficacy and safety communication concerns have highlighted the need for alternative ways to communicate with those in the healthcare arena,” noted Robert Goodman, Chief Executive Officer, IMC. “Our network companies and their talent can provide the services clients need to meet this challenge by enhancing the dialogue among both physicians and patients,” he added.

Heading IMC as CEO is Robert Goodman. Mr. Goodman, who was most recently the president and CEO of HealthTalk, has a track record of identifying new healthcare communications technologies that can help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies communicate more effectively with patients. As president and CEO of OnHealth Network, Mr. Goodman transformed the company into the number one trafficked health information network on the internet. While with OnHealth, which was acquired by WebMD in 2000, the site won numerous awards for its content and marketing. Goodman came to HealthTalk in 2002, where he expanded their initial internet focus on chronically ill patients to what is now a broad platform for patient communication and programming.

Nancy Adams, who served as president of The Peer Group, has been appointed executive vice president of professional services. Ms. Adams will apply her insights and experience to further enhance the growing professional services that IMC will offer. She brings more than 20 years of management experience, and helped build The Peer Group into one of the nation’s leading peer-to-peer physician education companies. She retains authority over business activities at The Peer Group.

“We are privileged to be working with many of the major biopharmaceutical companies in helping them explain to prescribers and patients why their medicines are important to human health and life,” said Nancy Adams. “The opportunity to provide clients with insight – to help facilitate productive professional/consumer dialogue – speaks to our heightened value in the industry,” she added.

Michael Cunnion, who served as executive vice president of business development and marketing of HealthTalk, has been appointed executive vice president of patient services of IMC and president of HealthTalk. Mr. Cunnion brings more than 12 years of healthcare sales and marketing experience to IMC. Most recently, Mr. Cunnion was with WebMD Corp where he was responsible for consumer sales strategy, product development, advertising operations and portal distribution partnerships. In addition to his continued focus on the success of HealthTalk, Mr. Cunnion will work to expand IMC’s patient services.

Executive Team with the Expertise to Grow Physician and Patient Services for Improved Client Benefit

Among the executive team of IMC is senior vice president of corporate development, Seth Freedman, who most recently drove business development and mergers and acquisitions activity at Thomson Corporation. Mr. Freedman also brings expertise in strategic planning and operational management from his time as a consultant at PriceWaterHouseCoopers’ Healthcare practice. His strong background in health management and consulting provide a unique perspective for upcoming opportunities to expand IMC’s products and services.

Jo Anne Jensen, appointed vice president of market research & data analytics, has been working in operational management process, productivity improvement and market research for more than 19 years. Ms. Jensen is building an infrastructure that supports the delivery of complex research with breakthrough speed and quality. From her experiences at Market Measures, Global Market Insite and Response Analysis Corporation, Ms. Jensen is focused on providing clients with the patient and physician insights they need for strategic decisions.

IMC’s new vice president and medical director, Ed Zimney, M.D., contributes his 21 years of pharmaceutical experience to the IMC team. Dr. Zimney’s career as a physician, as a branch chief for DDMAC and regulatory counsel for multiple biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies provides IMC and its clients with the ability to develop products and services that meet their medical and regulatory needs.

About Informed Medical Communications
Informed Medical Communications (www.informedmedical.com), headquartered in New York City, was formed through the merger of The Peer Group, an industry innovator and leader in conducting peer-to-peer medical programs, and HealthTalk, a pioneer in providing disease information and support resources that empower patients and caregivers coping with serious medical conditions to proactively and effectively manage their diseases. The network delivers integrated marketing programs for patients and medical professionals, with the goal of improving the dialogue among patients and physicians in understanding health conditions and their medical options. IMC is a private-equity backed, privately held company.

IMC provides biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with a spectrum of products and services including: interactive and live physician and patient programs; call-center services and primary and syndicated market research. The combined Company offers clients access to more than 400,000 physicians, a patient database of people with chronic illnesses, and clinical experience in some 30 disease-states (e.g., oncology, asthma, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular, Crohn’s disease and migraine).