Health

The Drug Industry Gets a Dose of The Blues

by Bob Burton — June 8, 2005 - 2:10am
  • Topics: Health, Marketing, Public Relations

    • In the heart of Sydney's Ryde Valley - Australia's drug industry alley - fifty marketing managers and PR advisers from major drug companies, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, pondered the industry's poor public standing.

    The drug industry representatives – used to hustling everything from drugs for guys struggling with their love life to cancer cures – were seriously depressed. "I am appalled by our reputation," Group Vice-President Far East Region for Schering Plough, Rod Unsworth, told a panel of industry heavy-hitters discussing "reputation management" at the third Australian Pharma Marketing Congress.

    Unsworth, who describes himself as a "passionate" supporter of the industry, bluntly told the mid-May gathering that the drug industry in Australia was way behind even the tobacco industry in its efforts to rebuild its political stocks.

    Unsworth warned the panel of the potentially fatal consequences of the Australian industry's defensive posture. "If we say we are going to just look after the opinion leaders and we don't give a damn about the public, we are dead. And if we let the debate be about price, we are dead," he said.

    Pfizer's Fickle Philanthropy

    by Bob Burton — June 6, 2005 - 6:07am
  • Topics: Corporations, Health, International, Public Relations

    • In a series of announcements in the aftermath of the tsunami that swept that swept through East Asia and parts of Africa on December 26, 2004, Pfizer committed itself to contribute a total of $20 million in cash and $60 million worth of medicines. Pfizer's staff chipped in a further $2 million.

    On its U.S. website, Pfizer listed its tsunami response as an example of its commitment to corporate social responsibility.

    However, at a recent drug industry marketing conference in Sydney, Pfizer Australia's Manager of Government Affairs, David Miles, said that the company would have been better off being less generous. "We would be better off giving five million and shutting up," Miles said, only a little jokingly. "As soon as you get into big numbers people think you can double or triple it."

    Another Company that Just Needs to Tell Its Story Better

    by Diane Farsetta — June 3, 2005 - 4:12pm

    The drug company Merck is launching a $20 million, 6-month advertising campaign with the slogan "Merck.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, June 2, 2005

    Praise the Lord and Pass the Vioxx

    by Diane Farsetta — May 27, 2005 - 12:42pm

    The industry lobby group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is launching "an aggressive new PR plan," highlighting its new CEO, former Congressman and cancer survivor Billy Tauzin.

    Main Source: 
    PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 26, 2005

    Heal Thyself, Medical Journals Told

    by Bob Burton — May 23, 2005 - 10:41pm

    In an essay for the Public Library of Science, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, Richard Smith, argues that while corporate advertising may be the most obvious source of revenue for medical journals, they are "the least corrupting." More significant, he writes, are the clinical trials the journal publishes which carry "the journal's stamp of approval (unlike the advertising)." While journals can more tightly screen what gets published, Smith thinks more fundamental steps are required to "stop journals from being beholden to

    Main Source: 
    Public Library of Science, May 2005

    Doubting Scientists for Hire

    by Diane Farsetta — May 23, 2005 - 4:48pm

    "The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as 'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating procedure in some parts of corporate America," writes Clinton-era Energy Department epidemiologist David Michaels.

    Main Source: 
    Scientific American, June 15, 2005

    Smokes Still Get in Children's Eyes

    by Diane Farsetta — May 19, 2005 - 11:34am

    "Major tobacco companies agreed to stop pushing for their products to be promoted in the arts from 1998," but "the number of tobacco brand appearances in U.S. films aimed at children has not fallen significantly," according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The percentage of "films aimed at children show[ing] tobacco brand names, or trademarks" fell slightly from 15 to 12, after 1998.

    Main Source: 
    BBC News, May 18, 2005
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