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IMS Promotions and Principles
Pharma and healthcare research giant IMS Health has promoted Gilles Pajot to COO and Leslye Katz as Senior VP and CFO. The firm has also been in a federal court this week, defending the right of companies to see prescription data from individual physicians.
Pajot retains his duties as Executive VP, Global Business Management and assumes responsibility for driving the firm's business operations. He joined IMS ten years ago and until last year held executive positions covering operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Katz has been Vice President and Controller for the past five years. She worked earlier in her career at Dun & Bradstreet, joining in 1980 and holding a number of senior financial management posts, including Senior VP and CFO of Reuben H. Donnelley, a D&B division. From 1996 to 1998, she was VP and Treasurer IMS predecessor Cognizant Corporation – she then spent three years as VP and CFO of American Lawyer Media, Inc., a legal journalism and information company.
Both are based at the company's Connecticut headquarters and report to David R. Carlucci, IMS chairman and CEO, who comments: 'Gilles Pajot has played a prominent role in leading IMS into new areas of growth and opportunity – driving higher demand for our offerings and reaching a broader range of health industry clients.' Katz he describes as 'an outstanding leader with extensive financial expertise and a broad understanding of our business and strategic vision... uniquely qualified to help IMS further capitalize on the tremendous opportunities before us.'
The firm has also been in the news this week defending the right of data mining companies to see prescription data from individual physicians. In a federal court hearing the New Hampshire Medical Society, AARP, and the state Department of Health and Human Services are backing a law sponsored by State Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, to bar access to this information.
Rosenwald says the move will 'allow doctors to make the best prescribing decisions, free from the pressure of drug salespeople'. IMS is one of two companies suing the state within days of the law's introduction, on the grounds that it violates their freedom of speech. For IMS, Randolph Frankel said the data helps consumers make better choices and also makes for better public health decisions, commenting, 'We are the messenger to the health-care field, and we think the state is shooting the messenger.'
IMS Health had $1.8 billion in 2005 revenue and is online at www.imshealth.com .
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