Healthcare Public Relations: An Art and a Science, Too

Biotech, pharmaceutical and molecular medicine companies turn to healthcare public relations firms to solidify and enhance their market positions and brands through the development and implementation of highly strategic and creative public relations programs. From discovery to development to commercialization, pharmaceutical companies will retain healthcare public relations pros to manage all of the communications aspects of a product throughout the progress of its development. Such firms - particularly those with a wealth of experience in healthcare public relations – can quickly and easily translate the science into stories that resonate with broad audiences by working intelligently with researchers, compassionately with patients and proactively with the media. Simply stated… superior science provides the competitive advantage for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, choosing the right healthcare public relations firm can be the critical difference between marketing failure and success. An experienced healthcare public relations firm understands that there is both an art and science to media relations and implements national and global PR campaigns that achieve critical objectives such as product and technology visibility, partnership and funding cultivation, clinical trial recruitment, pre-launch market conditioning, new product introductions, reimbursement advocacy, alliance-building and paving the way for successful liquidity events such as IPOs or acquisition activity. In addition to elevating brand awareness, healthcare public relations pros are called upon to develop programs that drive physician demand and stimulate consumer awareness by publicizing key regulatory milestones and peer-reviewed research. Of course, having a healthcare public relations firm that is skilled in crisis communications is also quite important given the risks associated with drug development. While media relations and social media capabilities should be central to the selection of a healthcare public relations firm, other specialties should be weighed as well and these include complementary services such as government relations/public affairs, media coaching, video production and a speakers’ bureau. Combined these services form a multi-channeled marketing arsenal that would benefit any company seeking healthcare public relations counsel.