 Murad Sabzali |
Life science and healthcare CG Life has acquired Philadelphia-based scientific PR and technical marketing agency McDAY.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Founded in 2006, McDAY focuses on marketing campaigns for organizations in the pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical and technology fields. The agency is led by president Susan Stipa, a former Roche process chemical engineer who bought the agency in 2015. Prior to running McDAY, Stipa was a senior vice president of commercial operations for Foster Wheeler Biokinetics’s pharmaceutical division in Philadelphia.
Stipa will continue to serve in the president role in light of the acquisition.
The agency will henceforth be known as McDAY, a CG Life Agency, and will continue to operate from its Center City, Philadelphia offices.
CG Life founding partner Murad Sabzali told O’Dwyer’s that the agency made the acquisition to expand its pharma expertise and establish an East Coast footprint.
“This is an extremely exciting time in life sciences and healthcare. The speed at which innovation is becoming commercialized is unprecedented,” Sabzali said. “This requires an increasingly sophisticated approach to marketing and communications. Together, CG Life and McDay have such a wealth of scientists and engineers within our combined team that it felt like the perfect time to make available our most important resources: solid scientific understanding, strategic data-driven insights, and decades upon decades of combined business experience."
It’s the Chicago-based agency’s second acquisition in 2020. In January, CG Life acquired Colorado-based digital marketing agency The Market Element.
Jim Weiss, founder & chairman of Real Chemistry, has joined the board of ICR Inc. as it steps up its healthcare capital markets offering.
Ruder Finn has hired Kelly Yoder, who spent a dozen years at Weber Shandwick rising to North America health lead, as managing director, global head of health & life sciences.
ICR has named John Capodanno head of US healthcare corporate communications and Matthew Willey managing director in its medical technology and diagnostics practice. 
April is National Minority Health Month, spotlighting the urgency to improve health outcomes in communities of color.
In a recent conversation about the evolving media landscape, Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, spoke with Campbell O’Connor, Group Director, Media & Engagement at Real Chemistry, about how AI is influencing media relations and healthcare communications.
