Craig Scott and Michael Murphy from Hill Dickinson’s corporate team have advised Fishawack on its acquisition of Facilitate, the Brighton-based medical communications specialist, as part of its ongoing buy and build strategy.

Established in 2002 by Ann Deickmann and Alan Bromley, the team at Facilitate has largely been supporting global pharmaceutical clients based in the USA and Europe.

Whilst Alan will take this opportunity to leave medical communications sector after nearly 25 years, Ann Deickmann will stay with the business and commented “I am excited to be part of the group both for myself and for the team. We wanted to become part of a group that had global reach but remained focussed on medical communications.”

Facilitate will be integrated into the Fishawack Group and Fishawack will provide Facilitate with more resources and representation in the USA. Recognising this, Facilitate will hereafter be known as Fishawack-Facilitate.

Oliver Dennis, CEO of Fishawack added, “Medical communications in the UK is based around an axis that connects Manchester to Oxford to London to Brighton. Being present in those areas puts you within reach of 75% of all experienced medical communications professionals. Brighton is a great place for Fishawack to be. I’d like to thank our investor, GCP, for their continued support having done three acquisitions in just over a year.”

Gail Flockhart added “Whenever we acquire a new business, we are focussed on the reputation of the team, the team fit with Fishawack and great client relationships. We’ve been collaborating with Facilitate for the last 6 months and have a clear plan for supporting them with additional resource.”

Dominic Miller (Fishawack’s Chief Financial Officer) thanked Ruth Percival and James Fieldhouse of BDO (Manchester, UK) for corporate finance lead advisory support, Craig Scott and Michael Murphy of Hill Dickinson LLP (Liverpool, UK) for corporate legal lead advisory support.