For Britain's pharmaceutical companies, corporate reputation derives from compliance, internal comms and R&D. Brittany Golob explores the sector

After an investment of decades, millions of pounds and thousands of people, the end user of a prescription drug pays just £7.85 at the Boots counter. The response to oft-rising drug costs in the UK is outrage on the part of punters, patient organisations and medical charities.

A classic criticism is that money is unduly spent in response to a clamouring and profiteering pharmaceuticals industry. The reality is that a pharmaceutical company, in this instance GlaxoSmithKline, spends around £5 billion per year on the research and development of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer products. A new drug typically spends 10-15 years in the R&D stage and a company can have tens of drugs in research in any given year. Though millions are poured into this process, companies are put at risk by short periods of profitability.

The perception that pharmaceuticals companies are solely interested in profits yields the widespread view of the so-called ‘Big Pharma’ marketing machine. However, drug names splashed across free pens and notepads with hordes of salesmen pushing the latest and greatest product onto unknowing healthcare professionals is, at least in the UK, only the Hollywood version of the industry. In reality, Dr Richard Barker, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceuticals Industry (ABPI), told the BBC, “The facts simply do not back the assertion that doctors are unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing activities.”

The reality within most of these companies, large and small, is an ambition to help patients through a business model that values science and innovation. Emma Gilbert, head of communication and advocacy at Amgen UK, says, “My perspective is that in the pharmaceuticals industry, there is an ongoing requirement for us to look at how we were perceived. We need to overcome the perception that drug companies are just out to make money from ill patients. Our focus is on helping patients treat grievous illnesses, and the development of effective products to make people better.”

Companies have altered their strategies to enhance transparency throughout the R&D and clinical trial process while ensuring accurate and informative conversation drives product promotion. Earlier this year, GSK became the first major pharma company to announce the publication of all of its clinical trial data, current and historic. The shift in the industry is not so much a response to poor reputation but a slow realisation on the part of those outside the industry of the activities within the pharmaceutical industry.

The ABPI, the industry’s trade body, estimates that the £13.3 million spent each day on R&D is mostly funded by the industry itself. Governmental funds account for less than 10% of these costs.

What the industry itself has sought to change is not the way it operates, but the ways in which its reputation is perceived. Mindy Dooa, communications director at Astellas Pharma Europe, says, “In pharmaceutical communications, science makes up the foundation of everything we do. When we launch and market medicines, it is not about hype or promotion. The way we build brands is to clearly articulate the findings of clinical research to show what the product does, how it differs from other available treatments, and the value it brings to the world by addressing previously unmet medical needs.”

Individual companies may act on their own in most respects, but in terms of reputation, it’s the industry as a whole that matters. This is even more pronounced in the digital space, Gilbert says. If one company falters, the entire industry is blamed. Thus, it falls to the ABPI to institute and ensure that pharmaceuticals companies comply with the Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry.

The code acts as an ethics outline for the industry and ensures best practice in communications and brand development. The code is held up as an almost holy touchpoint by communications practitioners in the industry. Because of its strict delineations of appropriate and inappropriate activity, adherence is of the utmost importance.

Mary Smiddy, UK head of health for veteran PR firm Porter Novelli, outlines the difficulties pharma companies face while communicating within the code. In the Asia-Pacific and MENA regions, her experience was put to use in approaching different cultures and different codes of compliance, by engaging with the appropriate opinion makers and spokespeople to drive dialogue about a particular course of treatment. “It’s not about pushing the brand,” she says. “But about producing as much content as you can with a credible source and with credible opinion makers. A credible source will communicate general messages that will benefit the patient and have them make an informed decision.”

Most of the international codes of compliance do not allow companies to directly influence consumers. Most also bar direct discussion about specific products. This means pharma companies must engage doctors in conversation, drive content toward advocacy groups and seek high-profile spokespeople to address health issues and courses of treatment, not promote products. Smiddy says, codes ensure compliance while empowering patients to understand their illness and engage in meaningful dialogue with doctors regarding treatment.

For Staffordshire-based pharma company Clinigen, communications solely targets doctors and healthcare professionals. The company’s business model, however is a bit different from the AstraZenecas and Amgens of the world. It seeks ‘unloved brands’ that treat difficult diseases such as HIV, leukemia and others and makes them more accessible to doctors in the UK and around the world. Clinigen COO Shaun Chilton says, “The interesting thing about our business is we don’t have sales forces, we work through key opinion leaders. Our responsibility is more about education and enabling physicians to be able to access drugs that they otherwise could not.” Clinigen Group’s portfolio of specialty pharmaceutical products currently consists of three niche, hospital-only drugs, however its Clinical Trial Supply and Global Access Program businesses enable the sourcing and delivery of many critical drugs to patients. Clinigen is able to engage in conversation about each product through meaningful dialogue with opinion leaders and healthcare professionals, particularly because of the potentially life-saving impact of certain drugs. “It’s about meeting an unmet medical need,” Chilton adds. “We can’t promote that but whatwe can do is educate clinicians about previously inaccessible drugs and how we can help to gain access to them for their patients.” Clinigen’s communications operation provides access to previously inaccessible drugs and promotes education about treatment.

Pharma companies adherence to the ABPI and international codes is tantamount in communications because non-compliance could result in a complete collapse of the reputation of the company itself and of the industry as a whole.

However, the industry’s external communications strategies begin with the staff, scientists and communications teams within each organisation.

“A lot of pharmaceutical companies like to think of themselves as patient-centric.” Dina Green, MD of inVNT with internal comms experience, says. Because of that, education is of the utmost importance for sales staff to be able to effectively communicate with healthcare professionals. In terms of brand advocacy, an organisation’s employees

are the first line of offense. “If you can’t make sure your sales team advocates for the brand, they’re not going to be able to sell it externally and get external advocates for the brand,” she says.

Engaging the workforce has been a key strategy for in-house comms teams as well. “Communicating about brands that can have a profound impact on peoples’ lives is an inspiring part of the job,” Dooa says.

Clinigen’s internal culture derives directly from chairman Peter Allen - whose wife cooks breakfast for the 80-strong workforce each Tuesday. The company fosters its expertise as a means of communicating more effectively with both medical professionals and other pharma companies from whom its products derive.

Jim Baxter, associate director at Hanover says, “Your staff and your colleagues are your biggest advocates. They’ll be taking out your message and setting out that company culture. Communications has a strong role in the interactions between senior management and employees on the ground.”

While employees can be the most effective communicators in the B2B space, or rather business to healthcare, as is the case in pharmaceuticals, corporate reputation is often somewhat neglected. Baxter says the brand loyalty that defines other sectors is lacking in pharmaceuticals and Smiddy says only a tiny portion of patients are actually aware of their medication’s parent company.

Because companies are forbidden to market directly to their end-users, reputation in the pharmaceuticals industry is not based on that of individual companies but on the overall reputation of the sector. “There is still ironically a disconnect with a variety of pharma companies where they don’t fully understand the importance of corporate reputation. They underestimate the way they are seen by patients,” Smiddy says. However, she adds, these companies have become skilled at providing honest, transparent information about their scientific research and have become key actors in the healthcare industry in terms of driving conversation about treatment. Because of that, companies are focusing more on their contributions to science and health as well as their relationships with the healthcare community.

“Pharma has been guilty of not talking about some of the great successes they’ve had,” Baxter says. He says transparency and an issues-based approach to relationships is the key to reputation. Dooa adds, “Most people don’t realise the time and cost involved in bringing new medicines to market.” Encouraging education and conversation around the research and development stage of product production not only complies with the ABPI code, but encourages conversation about healthcare in general and enhances the industry’s overall reputation.

“We’re here to help patients,” Gilbert says of Amgen. “At Amgen we are so passionate about science and how this translates in drugs that can help patients.” She adds that partnerships between the NHS and the pharma industry and between doctors and patients are the way forward. “For us, clarity, transparency and ethics is in everything that we do and the same is true of the industry in general.”

Corporate narrative and reputation results from these forces, and from transparent, clear narratives within individual companies. Ben Lewis, associate director at Blue Rubicon says, “I think the key is having a very strong central narrative at the very heart of your business from the CEO right down to the sales person to help build that trust and tell the story about the value of the medicine and the path taken to get you there. If you do that successfully, you start to see a change in perception. Pharmaceutical companies are not just drug providers, but will be seen as valued partners in the delivery of care to patients.”