The Ziment Group, a US-based pharmaceutical market research agency, has announced that it has been acquired by WPP on behalf of WPP's Information and Consultancy group, Kantar.

Ziment will form the base of a new global healthcare practice to further improve the service Kantar offers its pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device clients. WPP's current offerings to the sector include CommonHealth, a pharmaceutical marketing and communications business; Sudler & Hennessey in marketing and communications; and Feinstein Kean in public relations.

"The idea today is to form true global partnerships with our clients," said Howard Ziment, CEO of The Ziment Group. "By combining Ziment's healthcare market knowledge with Kantar's global research infrastructure that spans across 80 offices in 56 countries, we will truly be able to fulfil this promise.

"We are proud to join forces with WPP--they are the most progressive of the large global marketing services companies. The move will allow us to set-up operations around the globe, serving our clients wherever they are selling and marketing their products."

The Kantar Group is a custom research organization operating under the names Research International, Millward Brown, and Kantar Media Research. In 2000 Kantar's revenues were just under $1 billion worldwide, with over three-quarters of that revenue emanating from outside the United States.

Founded in 1976 and headquartered in New York, Ziment employs 350 full and part time staff in its five operating units across 12 offices. All of the top management at the company has signed on for long term contracts. The company works with most of the largest multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients in the world.

Ziment focuses on `fact based consulting', using strategic marketing research to gather data and synthesize it into information that helps clients make better business decisions.