Norstella names Diffusion as global PR AOR

NEW YORK: Global pharmaceutical intelligence services provider Norstella has named Diffusion as its global PR AOR, supporting the Norstella parent company and its brand portfolio: Citeline, Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group.

From 2021 to 2022, Evaluate, MMIT, Panalgo and The Dedham Group came together via a series of acquisitions and strategic partnerships. They united under the Norstella parent brand in May 2022. That November, Norstella acquired Citeline. 

Norstella CMO Amie Podolak said that each brand previously had its own PR agency, but declined to name them. Diffusion previously supported Citeline for seven years. 

“We needed to land on an agency that could support the parent company Norstella and each of its brands,” said Podolak. “The RFP was distributed to each of the agencies that the current brands were using.”

The RFP process took place last October. Diffusion was hired in February and the contract kicked off at the start of this month. 

Diffusion’s goal is to cultivate a corporate brand identity for the Norstella parent organization, while also driving day-to-day PR programs for each company. It is working to elevate the profile of each brand in the U.S. and U.K., creating opportunities for brand storytelling, subject matter expert commentary and awards and speaking programs. 

“The focus is at the brand level, not at the parent company level,” said Podolak. “So we are focused on making sure they understand each of the brands, who our experts are and the conversations we can be a part of. If there are big-picture stories where Norstella could have a role in that story, we are looking for those too, but that’s more secondary.”

Citeline offers specialist intelligence, data and software for clinical trials, drug development and regulatory compliance; Evaluate provides aggregated, normalized commercial data and predictive analytics to help life-sciences clients make decisions about investments including pipeline prioritization, commercial assessment and competitive intelligence; MMIT helps pharma and life-sciences clients overcome hurdles to patient access via integrated claims, lab and market access data and advisory services; and Panalgo provides analytics software, streamlined access to data through partnerships and expert analytic services. The Dedham Group is a market access oncology and specialty therapeutics consultancy that offers research, data analytics and consulting services.

Diffusion VP Allie Tedone is leading a team of nine globally in the firm’s offices in Los Angeles, New York and the U.K.

Diffusion will pinpoint the most pressing conversations in the industry that Norstella and its brands can provide insight into, such as patient engagement in clinical trials, artificial intelligence and the future of CRISPR and personalized medicine, said Tedone.

“There are so many important stories that need to be told in these spaces and with Norstella we have the opportunity to help both the industry and consumer understand how new developments impact the pipeline process and ultimately the patient experience,” said Tedone.

The budget is $500,000. 

“Before we created the parent organization and the M&A activity, we were a U.S.-based company,” said Podolak. “With some of the acquisitions, that footprint has expanded across Europe and Asia.” 

She added that Diffusion’s presence in London and the U.S. made the firm an ideal fit. Diffusion also has a network of global partners including in the Asia-Pacific region.