Sermo, the world’s leading HCP insights company and the first social media platform for physicians, today announced its acquisition of Australia-based market research leader, Minter Group. The acquisition expands Sermo’s existing panel of 1.3M physicians to include an additional 50,000+ Asia-Pacific (APAC)-based HCPs, and aims to better connect the pharmaceutical industry to HCPs in emerging markets.

Since 2003 Minter has built a variety of research panels across various industries including IT, consumer and healthcare. For the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Minter employs multilingual HCPs and research facilitators across multiple specialties servicing clients such as Ipsos and Optical Strategix.

In addition to enhanced opportunities to participate in market research, Minter HCPs will now have access to Sermo’s social platform benefits including medical crowdsourcing capabilities, the world’s largest database of 1M peer-to-peer physician drug ratings, specialty-specific educational content from industry and much more.

“The rise of chronic conditions and aging populations in the APAC region, combined with the fact that Southeast Asia is becoming one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in the world, means the need for HCP insights with the potential to help deliver safe and effective treatment options to patients has never been greater,” said Peter Kirk, Sermo CEO. “We’re excited to welcome Minter customers into a larger global initiative to amplify the voice of physicians and ultimately, support better patient outcomes.”