CMI Media Group is adding to its spread of media services through a new specialty communications business that introduces a slate of new cutting-edge marketing tools.
The new business unit is centered on medical affairs, which CMI described as the industry’s essential “third pillar,” it explained in a Sept. 2 press release. By offering “high-value, insight-driven interactions” in the medical communications realm, the company figures it can improve patient outcomes and integrate therapeutic communications earlier in drug development.
CMI is already working with “multiple leading biopharma organizations” to rework scientific exchanges based on its new breadth of services, it said.
The core services wrapped into the specialty communications unit include "compliant omnichannel scientific ecosystems", which merges medical science liaison engagement, peer-to-peer education, emerging media and more into a conjoined “ecosystem.” The cross-functional alignment and synergy function, meanwhile, will guide patient-centered educational strategies, while "next-generation measurement" pledges to move beyond standard metrics such as impressions and sends to instead focus on “proprietary, autonomous frameworks” that track behavioral shifts and impacts, according to CMI.
The business unit's capabilities also include AI-enhanced scientific intelligence, which will deploy “ethical, purpose-built” AI to identify audiences and deliver timely educational exchanges.
Heading up the buisiness is specialty communications group president Eugene Lee. A decades-long mainstay within CMI leadership, Lee previously held the chief operating officer title before the organizational change. New to the group, however, is Mike Reynolds, who will now serve as SVP, medical and scientific communications.
Together, the duo will leverage their “specialized domain expertise” to guide the mission, CMI said.
“Medical Affairs is experiencing a monumental evolution. The landscape demands a level of sophistication, omnichannel continuity, and measurement rigor that legacy models simply were not built to support,” Lee explained in the release. “By adapting modern data, AI, and strategic frameworks specifically to the strict compliance and governance needs of Medical Affairs, we are helping biopharma leaders reshape this pillar into a strategic powerhouse.”
This, Reynolds added, will give medical affairs teams the “strategic leverage they have earned.”
CMI is WPP’s dedicated healthcare media agency and offers solutions in omnichannel activation, audience intelligence, media strategy and more. With the addition of the new unit, the company will focus its practices on medical affairs, scientific communications, rare disease, payer and market access and account-based marketing, it noted in the release.
Like most media agencies, CMI has been tuned in to the growing wave of AI innovation across the industry. Earlier this summer, the company launched advertising technology division Ad Astra, which centralizes technology solutions through a “modular suite of interoperable solutions that combine precision data, advanced ad tech, and intelligent orchestration capabilities to drive measurable business outcomes,” CMI said at the time.