• by Larissa Faw , January 13, 2020

Healthcare marketing group W2O has acquired 21Grams, a strategic and creative agency specializing in making medical advertising watchable to patients. Financial terms were not disclosed.

21Grams’ core capabilities include advertising, patient storytelling, medical education, strategy, analytics and television production.

Under the deal, the acquired agency will operate under W2O’s integrated P&L with access to all of W2O’s proprietary data models and tools as well as its 1,000-plus person multidisciplinary team.

Jim Weiss, founder/CEO, W2O, stated, “Simply put, we are joining together to be the first at ‘what’s next’ in health.”

21Grams leadership team will remain the same with Robert Blink (CEO), Wendy Levine, Jayson Dupré and Frank Mazzola overseeing 150-plus employees in their same offices.

This deal came about after the two companies were introduced by W2O’s private equity firm New Mountain Capital. A team from Excel Partners, led by Ed Soh and Doug Donohue, served as the exclusive financial advisor to 21Grams. 

21Grams will complement three recent W2O acquisitions including Arcus Medica, ISO.health and Radius Digital Science that will expand the network’s capabilities to more fully encompass direct-to-consumer (DTC), direct-to-provider (DTP) and business-to-business (B2B) advertising and marketing.

W2O currently works with more than 100 healthcare companies as well as 24 of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies.