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WeissComm Partners Announces Several New Hires to Strengthen and Expand Corporate, Investor and Product Communications Offerings Nationwide

Posted on: Monday, 23 April 2007, 09:00 CDT

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissComm Partners, a mid-sized public relations agency focused on the healthcare industry, today announced that the company has hired six new associates to broaden and strengthen the firm's capabilities and support its expanding base of U.S. and global clients. These new professionals are Cassandra Choe, M.D., M.S. in New York, Aimee Corso in Los Angeles, Laura Cutland and Edie DeVine in San Francisco, April Starling in New York and Kelly Thornicroft in Chicago.

"The addition of these diverse, seasoned professionals reflects our commitment to recruit and retain the talent necessary to service the needs of our stellar roster of biotechnology, pharmaceutical, device and diagnostics clients," said Diane Weiser, COO of WeissComm. "With a mostly senior level team of nearly 50 professionals, we are uniquely positioned to deliver high-quality management, services and consistent results across the entire corporate and product communications continuum, something our clients have come to expect from WeissComm."

The new associates bring significant experience to WeissComm from diverse backgrounds such as medicine, journalism, as well as agency, corporate, marketing and investor communications. They have relevant and deep experience in investor relations and corporate positioning, advocacy relations, clinical trial recruitment, and professional/patient education. They include:

Cassandra Choe, M.D. M.S., Associate

As a trained physician, Cassandra Choe brings relevant expertise to WeissComm. She began her healthcare communications career at Porter Novelli where she played a key role in implementing communication programs for Wyeth and its pediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevnar(R), globally raising awareness for a deadly pediatric disease. Prior to her career in healthcare communications, she was a general surgeon-in-training at Albert Einstein School of Medicine's North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

Aimee Corso, Senior Associate

Aimee Corso has 20 years of healthcare communications experience, with a 360-degree perspective of the industry garnered through experience supporting providers, payers, device, biotech and pharmaceutical clients. Prior to joining WeissComm, Aimee led her own consulting practice focused on medical device, biotech and payer/provider relations. Previously, she was partner, senior vice president and national practice leader of the Medical Devices & Diagnostics practice of Fischer Health, where she was responsible for the management and growth of clients including Guidant, Boston Scientific and Medtronic. Aimee also served as vice president of marketing and strategic planning at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Laura Cutland, Associate

Laura Cutland has more than 10 years of professional writing experience. She joins WeissComm from the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, a weekly business publication, where she worked as a copy editor and news reporter, covering the biotechnology, healthcare and private equity industries. Prior to that, Laura spent five years writing for several West Coast business publications, covering law and venture capital among other sectors. Laura has also worked as a writing consultant for several Seattle-area organizations, including a medical software company. She began her career as a technical writer for Inamed Corp., formerly known as McGhan Medical Corp., a medical device company based in Santa Barbara.

Edie DeVine, Senior Associate

Edie DeVine joins WeissComm from Progenics Pharmaceuticals, where she was an integral player in the organization's investor and communications strategy and implementation. Edie has 15 years of experience in all stages of private and public financing, advocacy relations, product development and commercialization. Prior to her position at Progenics, she was a key member of a New York-based, boutique healthcare M&A organization working to identify venture capital funding for a start-up drug-delivery device company. She also has six years of retail brokerage and personal financial planning experience.

April Starling, Senior Associate

April Starling joins WeissComm from HealthSTAR Public Relations and brings vast experience in pharmaceutical public relations, media relations, corporate communications and sales. She was most recently responsible for managing the Rx-to-OTC switch for GlaxoSmithKline's alli(TM) -- the only Food and Drug Administration-approved over-the-counter weight loss product. Previously, she worked at Cohn & Wolfe Healthcare, where she ran several high-profile accounts including Wyeth Pharmaceuticals' kidney transplant medication, Rapamune(R); and several products for GlaxoSmithKline, including Advair(R), for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Engerix-B(R), a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B, and Havrix(R) pediatric, a hepatitis A vaccine. Prior to Cohn & Wolfe Healthcare, she worked at Earle Palmer Brown, where she assisted in the daily public relations activities for Novartis Animal Health.

Kelly Thornicroft, Associate

Kelly Thornicroft joins WeissComm from GCI Group, where she most recently led account teams for Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals' and Berlex's oncology products. She played an integral role in communications activities supporting the FDA approval and launch of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals' and Onyx Pharmaceuticals' advanced kidney cancer treatment, Nexavar(R). In addition to coordinating program implementation, Kelly cultivated relationships with third-party organizations to build a foundation for recruiting/outreach endeavors relating to expanded access programs and patient assistance program efforts. She also managed projects for multiple business units within Medtronic including diabetes and neurology. Prior to joining GCI Group, Kelly worked at Edelman Public Relations, where she gained significant experience in diabetes, most notably for Roche Diagnostics Global and Roche Diabetes Care.

About WeissComm Partners

WeissComm Partners is a full-service public relations agency focused exclusively on serving the corporate and product communications needs of leading biotechnology, pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic companies. At WeissComm, senior counselors are the client's everyday team. WeissComm's team of seasoned professionals specialize in healthcare marketing, corporate and product PR, investor and advocacy relations, clinical trial recruitment and grassroots direct-to-patient PR programs. Ranked among the top PR firms in the U.S., WeissComm serves clients globally with offices in San Francisco, New York and in London through its alliance with Resolute Communications Ltd. For more information, please visit http://www.weisscommpartners.com/.

WeissComm Partners

CONTACT: Mariesa Kemble of WeissComm Partners, +1-608-850-4745

Web site: http://www.weisscommpartners.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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