Lee Equity Buys Physicians' Desk Reference from Thomson Reuters

Lee Equity Partners has launched drug information reference platform PDR Network, combining Thomson Reuters' Physicians' Desk Reference and Health Care Notification Network.

Physicians' Desk Reference publishes a reference book for doctors about prescription drugs. Health Care Notification Network is a Web-based provider of drug alerts to physicians.

HCNN, founded in 2008, was a division of Medem Inc., a company founded in 1999 by the American Medical Association and six other medical societies.

Lee Equity is the majority stakeholder in PDR Network. The deal didn't include debt financing, said a person familiar with the matter.

Thomson Reuters put the business up for sale last year and had hired Bank Of America to run a sale process.

Physicians' Desk Reference has been providing FDA-required drug information to physicians for over 60 years and currently serves over 600,000 doctors, said Edward Fotsch, chief executive of PDR Network. Health Care Notification Network has grown its subscriber base to over 260,000 doctors in the last year, said Fotsch.

The company expects to capitalize on the expansion of pharmaceutical regulation and the need for doctors to stay abreast of these developments, said Fotsch.

"The Obama administration has been much more active in creating new regulation that pharmaceutical companies have to fulfill", said Fotsch. "The FDA requirements have also been growing."

Lee Equity was attracted to PDR's brand and the fact that Health Care Notification is the only FDA-approved network for delivering drug alerts to physicians online, a Lee Equity spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.

President Obama's push toward electronic health care information is expected to drive more M&A activity in the health care IT space, from which the company hopes to land additional acquisitions, according to Fotsch.

PDR Network, which makes its revenue primarily through subscriptions, plans to grow by adding more subscribers and expanding beyond physicians to add nurse practitioners and non-physician health care professionals, said Fotsch. It will also add new technologies such as streaming video to its online features, he said.

Lee Equity, formed in 2006 by private equity veteran Thomas H. Lee, targets growth investments between $100 million and $500 million.

www.PDRNetwork.net