CommonHealth Strengthens Medical-education Unit With Key Appointments and Hires.

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BW HealthWire)-- April 6, 1999--

Wendy Nielsen-Fry Named President of ProCom International

Don Anderson Becomes SVP, Worldwide Professional Relations

CommonHealth, the world's largest healthcare-communications resource and a WPP Group (LSE:WPPL.L)(NASDAQ/ADR:WPPGY) company, today announced the appointment of Wendy S. Nielsen-Fry as president of its ProCom International unit, one of the organization's two medical-education companies.

Ms. Nielsen-Fry comes to ProCom from Health Learning Systems, CommonHealth's founding medical-education company, where she served as executive vice president, director of strategic services.

In a related move, Don Anderson has joined ProCom International as senior vice president, worldwide professional relations. Previously, Mr. Anderson served as vice president and account supervisor at Thomas Ferguson Associates, CommonHealth's founding healthcare-advertising company.

Ms. Nielsen-Fry began her 20-plus-year career in the pharmaceutical arena in nursing. Prior to joining CommonHealth in 1994, she was senior vice president, scientific communications, at Carlson Healthcare Communications in New York. Her professional experience includes nine years at Wyeth-Ayerst with ever-increasing sales and product-management responsibilities in various therapeutic categories.

"Wendy's firsthand experience with patients in hospital and outpatient settings, coupled with her years in sales and product management on the client side, give her an uncommon understanding of many therapeutic categories and the educational needs associated with those categories," said Gil Bashe, group company CEO of CommonHealth.

"Responsible for both the strategic and tactical development of large-scale projects at Health Learning Systems, Wendy will bring her skills in this area to ProCom at a time of accelerated change in medical education. Wendy and Don are key to aggressive delivery on our pledge to grow client brands through increased clinical understanding," Mr. Bashe added.

Don Anderson, who served on the client side at Pharmacia & Upjohn in international marketing for more than two decades, has been a key driver in strengthening relations between US-based CommonHealth companies and the organization's global network since joining CommonHealth in 1996.

"We're counting on Don's experience and enthusiasm to set new standards in combining global promotion, sales and education," said Ms. Nielsen-Fry. "His new role at ProCom exemplifies CommonHealth's commitment to build client brands by better tapping into individual staff talents and more completely integrating our services," she added.

In addition to the appointments of Ms. Nielsen-Fry and Mr. Anderson, ProCom International has expanded its talent base by hiring Michael J. Hrynko as a medical liaison manager and Judi Ingram as a meeting planner.

Mr. Hrynko joins CommonHealth with 10 years of cumulative experience with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, where he served as a professional hospital representative and executive sales representative with special focus on the oncology, anesthesia, surgery, pulmonary, gastrointestinal and anti-infective categories. Prior to joining CommonHealth, Mr. Hrynko was a sales and marketing account executive with Health Science Media.

Ms. Ingram brings to ProCom a wealth of experience in domestic and international meeting planning. She joins CommonHealth from Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., where she served as a meeting planner on key product-launch meetings.

CommonHealth comprises ProCom International, Adient, CommonHealth Australia, CommonHealth Consulting, CommonHealth Europe, CommonHealth Kyowa, Gowers Advertising, Health Learning Systems, the Hill and Knowlton Health and Pharmaceutical Practice, the OZM Group and a partnership in China with the Ogilvy Healthcare Network, The Quantum Group, The Xchange Group and Thomas Ferguson Associates.

For five consecutive years, CommonHealth was named by its peers the nation's "most admired" healthcare-communications resource, as reported in Med Ad News.