W2O has acquired ARC2 Communications and Media, the Los Angeles-based healthcare PR shop that was launched by two top Hill+Knowlton Strategies executives.
Christine Cassiano and Andrea Rothschild served as senior VPs and west coast health practice leads for the WPP unit and did stints at Amgen, the biopharmaceutical giant.
Cassiano also worked at Allergan, Abraxis BioScience, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Tickets.com
At Amgen, Rothschild headed the global commercial operations communications team, handling programming and issues management for products on the market and in the pipeline.
"We’re joining the W2O team to reinvent how we communicate, create content and innovate for clients from healthcare to entertainment to global brands,” said Cassiano and Rothschild in a joint statement.
Jim Weiss, CEO of W2O, called L.A. the "content capital of the world." The addition of ARC2 is part of his firm's plan to "innovate and challenge the status quo in how we entertain, consume and share content in any industry.”
Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter, a new book from FINN Partners chair global health and purpose Gil Bashe, says that the current healthcare system is not broken because it lacks innovation, talent or investment, but because it has lost sight of the people it exists to serve.
Jeff Smokler, former president at healthcare specialist imre, joins Washington-based Avoq to head its PA practice.
Supreme Group, healthcare marketing and communications platform, has merged its Amendola Communications (Fountain Hills, AZ) and Health+Commerce (Newport Beach, CA) units to form Supreme Communications, a full-service PR shop, under Ketchum alum Nicky Battle.
Even as technology changes the rules of engagement, digital health brands still control the most powerful tool they have—their story.
