UDG Healthcare
The death of the pharmaceuticals sales rep has long been forecast, but UDG continues to defy the doom-mongers. The healthcare services group celebrates its 70th anniversary this year and, it seems, adaptability is the key to its longevity.
UDG Healthcare completed six acquisitions last year worth $270 million, five of which were in its Ashfield business, its largest. Ashfield includes its sales reps, but it has been adding bolt-on acquisitions of higher-margin services to pharma companies, such as communications and advisory work. The four deals completed during the second half of its 2017 financial year, including Cambridge Bio Marketing and Micro Mass Communications, have been bedding in as expected, UDG said yesterday in its first-quarter trading update for the three months to the