Aiming to bridge India’s healthcare engagement gap, Tribes and Medulla launch Capsule

India’s healthcare communications market is about to get a dedicated player in the experiential space. Tribes Communications, an integrated marketing communications network, and Medulla Communications, have partnered to launch Capsule: The Rxperience Agency.

Positioned as India’s first super-specialist healthcare experiential agency, Capsule aims to create events and activations that are both scientifically accurate and compliant with industry regulations.

This challenge has long hindered healthcare engagement in India. The joint venture combines Tribes’ nationwide scale and executional muscle with Medulla’s medical and scientific depth.

“Healthcare engagement needs to evolve beyond traditional formats,” said Gour Gupta, chairman and MD, Tribes Communication. “With Capsule: The Rxperience Agency, we are not just creating events, we are shaping a new paradigm where science, creativity, and scale converge. Our vision is to set a global benchmark for healthcare communications: one that is compliant, immersive, and transformative.”

The agency intends to position itself as a one-stop partner for healthcare organisations looking to run experiential campaigns with measurable impact.

Why healthcare engagement needed a reset

The Indian healthcare marketing landscape has historically leaned on generic formats such as large conferences or product launches, often at the expense of compliance and impactful storytelling. This has left brands and agencies grappling with how to create memorable, compliant, and scientifically accurate engagements for both professionals and patients.

Experts note that meetings, events and activations are the single largest line item in healthcare marketing budgets. That creates both pressure and opportunity: brands want scale, but regulators demand strict adherence to medical accuracy. Capsule’s backers say the new agency will attempt to resolve this tension.

“As a specialist pharma and healthcare agency, we understand the industry’s struggle with creating compliant yet impactful events, activations and experiences, especially with healthcare professionals or patients,” said Praful Akali, founder and managing director, Medulla Communications. “We are so glad to join forces with Tribes like two halves of a capsule to create not just unique experiences but what we like to call Rxperiences.”

The two halves of a Capsule

The joint venture builds on complementary strengths. Tribes brings scale—the agency reports over $100 million in capitalised billing, more than 600 awards, a base of over 450 active clients, and 17 offices across India. Its portfolio spans Out-of-Home, experiential activations, digital, rural and retail solutions, as well as sports marketing and celebrity management.

Medulla contributes scientific depth. Founded in 2008, the agency has consistently ranked among the world’s top healthcare specialists. It was named Healthcare Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions in 2016 and maintained a top-three global ranking for three consecutive years between 2015 and 2017. It has also been recognised by Effies and WARC as one of the world’s most effective independent and specialist agencies.

Together, Capsule aims to integrate creativity, compliance and scientific credibility. The partners point to their collective record at Cannes Lions, Clios, LIA and OneShow as evidence that creativity and compliance can coexist.

According to both firms, Capsule will focus on pharma product launches, patient-awareness campaigns, medical conferences, behaviour-change activations, and exhibitions. Its stated differentiators include experiential reach, leveraging Tribes’ OOH and on-ground execution network and scientific credibility, drawing on Medulla’s team of doctors, pharmacists, and subject experts. Its technology-led formats will combine advanced DOOH and digital experiential tools with Medulla’s proprietary platforms. It will also curate events that place compliance at the core, but also emphasise memorable storytelling with a global-local mix by using partnerships across Asia and internationally to extend healthcare campaigns beyond India.

A market ripe for disruption

The launch comes at a time when India’s healthcare sector is expanding rapidly, driven by higher consumer awareness, new product pipelines, and increased investment in both private and public health infrastructure. Marketers in this sector are under pressure to demonstrate ROI while staying within regulatory guardrails.

Industry analysts suggest Capsule could fill a gap. By marrying Medulla’s scientific expertise with Tribes’ executional bandwidth, the agency could offer healthcare marketers a model that mitigates compliance risks while maximising audience engagement. Whether the joint venture can set a new benchmark for healthcare communication—as its founders aspire—will depend on how successfully it navigates the fine balance between regulation, creativity, and scale.

For Gupta, Capsule is as much about ambition as it is about market demand. “This is about raising the bar for the entire industry and reimagining how healthcare connects with the world,” he said.

Akali underscored the metaphor built into the agency’s name. “We like to think of it as two halves of a capsule coming together,” he said. “The idea is to move beyond events and create Rxperiences—interactions that are accurate, compliant and yet deeply engaging.”

With healthcare emerging as one of the most complex but vital marketing categories, Capsule’s performance will be closely watched by both brands and rival agencies. Whether it becomes a new standard or simply another entrant in a crowded market will depend on execution—and the appetite of clients to embrace a specialist, compliance-led model.