CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts and LONDON, June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Establishes New Business to Help International Companies Hire Their First Employees in the United States

Life sciences consulting firm Alacrita announced today that it has launched "Foothold America", a new business which enables non-US life science companies to easily hire their first employees in the United States. The US is the largest life science market and establishing a presence quickly becomes a strategic priority for most ambitious companies. Foothold America removes the administration, bureaucracy and effort that international companies face when looking to establish a physical presence.

Despite the attractiveness of the US market, there are numerous barriers that foreign companies face if they want to be close to their biggest customers. Employing a US worker directly subjects the foreign entity to US tax and liability. The foreign company could decide to form a US subsidiary to hire employees, but that entity is required to recruit the right individual(s), organise tax returns, payroll, employee tax, social security, insurance, immigration checks, withholding, worker's compensation, banking and healthcare, an option which overwhelms many companies looking to hire just a small number of employees.

Foothold America hires the employees and provides services to its clients under a standard consulting agreement. This removes the bureaucratic burden from the foreign company, leaving it to focus on growing its business while having a full time, dedicated resource in the US market.

Rob Johnson, Partner at Alacrita and a co-founder of Foothold America said: "While we fully expect that many companies coming to the US will eventually establish a corporate presence, Foothold America enables foreign companies to tackle the US market earlier, with greater confidence and lower risk. The employees work within our support network in Boston, allowing them to benefit from our wide range of contacts in the life science industry. We also, naturally, provide them with a strong sense of belonging, ensuring they do not feel isolated given the geographic distance."

Dr Jim Freeth, Managing Director at Retrogenix and Foothold America's first client, said: "The US is our biggest market and, although we have already started to penetrate the market, it was imperative that we grew our US client base as quickly and effectively as possible. The 'Foothold America' programme was the perfect solution to our needs, and I would fully recommend this to other non-US life science companies with similar needs and ambitions to ours."

Notes to editors 

About Foothold America 

Foothold America, an Alacrita business, enables non-US life science companies to easily hire their first employees in the United States. Foothold America hires the employee and provides services to its clients under a standard consulting agreemen. This removes the bureaucratic burden from the foreign company, leaving it to focus on growing its business while having full-time, dedicated resources in the US market.

http://www.footholdamerica.com

About Retrogenix 

Retrogenix is a rapidly growing UK-based biotech company providing a unique target deconvolution service to pharmaceutical and drug discovery companies. Retrogenix has research agreements with most of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies, numerous drug discovery companies, as well as many academic and non-for-profit institutions across the world.

http://www.retrogenix.com

About Alacrita 

Alacrita is a rapidly growing management consulting firm providing expertise-based services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life science sectors. The firm is supported by an unrivalled team of experts who operate across the spectrum of life sciences. They combine extensive international industry experience (strategic, technical and commercial), broad functional capabilities and a track record of success across the industry.

http://www.alacrita.com

Foothold America:
c/o Alacrita LLC
One Broadway, 14th floor
Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: +1-617-758-4119

Dara Khan
dkhan@alacrita.com

SOURCE Alacrita