Fingerpaint Acquires Splice, Boosting West Coast Presence

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Fingerpaint, a full-service health and wellness marketing firm with a global team of more than 580 people, has acquired Splice, a healthcare communications business based in Emeryville, California. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Fingerpaint, which was founded by Ed Mitzen, opened in Saratoga Springs in 2008 and four years later moved its offices to Broadway, occupying a free-standing building that previously housed Borders Books. 

Fingerpaint provides analytics-enabled, integrated marketing solutions to a growing roster of healthcare clients, specifically in the pharmaceutical, rare disease, and gene therapy sectors. The acquisition and full integration of Splice into the Fingerpaint brand will bolster the company, which was just named Agency of the Year, Category I, by Med Ad News, give it a footprint on the West Coast, and support its continued commitment to being a best-in-class commercialization services provider for biopharma.

“Splice has built a great company filled with top healthcare communications talent who we are looking forward to welcoming into the Fingerpaint family,” said Bill McEllen, a Fingerpaint Partner who also leads the firm’s advertising group, in a statement. “As Fingerpaint continues to partner with biopharma earlier in the commercialization process, this move will help us grow in a geographical area where biopharma companies are booming.”

As part of the transaction, Splice Co-Founder Paul Hagopian will continue to lead the group’s day-to-day operations, reporting directly to McEllen. 

In March, Fingerpaint announced a strategic investment in Leaderboard Branding, a leading global naming and branding business based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It joined other Fingerpaint companies: 1798, a market access and commercialization firm that specializes in healthcare consulting services, including patient and provider access services, financial impact analysis and analytics, competitive intelligence, and pull-through solutions; and Photo 51, a consultancy focused solely on advanced therapeutics, such as gene and cell therapies.