CLIENT: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America
PR AGENCY: Deveney Communications
TIMEFRAME: March 2003 - April 2003
BUDGET: $71,000
With more than 1,400 potentially life-saving medications offered
free or discounted by pharmaceutical companies through
patient-assistance programs, medical help abounded in 2002 to the
uninsured and under-insured. The only problem was how to inform
those people most in need.
Enter the Washington, D.C.-based trade group Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which set out to
fill what it saw as a gaping hole in the health-care sector by
launching a Web site clearinghouse called
Helpingpatients.org. Amid a backdrop of spiraling
prescription drug costs and widespread criticism that money, not
medicine, drives drug development and use, PhRMA hoped the
initiative would help to change some negative perceptions.
"People are falling through the cracks when it comes to health
care," says Ken Johnson, who recently was appointed senior vice
president of communications at PhRMA. "Our goal was to raise
awareness of the resources that are available through the 250
existing patient-assistance programs. We decided to do it because
the number of uninsured people in America continues to rise
[currently around 44 million]. The bottom line is, we want people
to know we care. We're trying to see the problem through the eyes
of the patients. Clearly, all those programs were confusing, so we
set up a program to help navigate the maze."
In early 2003, PhRMA enlisted the aid of New Orleans-based
Deveney Communications to launch a two-month PR campaign to
inform the media, local health- care practitioners and patient
advocates about the initiative.
"What excited me most was that this was a truly altruistic
program designed to help unnoticed and underserved people with
tremendous needs," says founder John Deveney. "Patient-advocacy
groups thought patient-assistance programs offered tremendous
opportunities, but they also involved a great deal of work in
finding out where they were, their requirements and which forms had
to be filled out ."
PhRMA selected 27 key states based on an association-determined
criteria, while Deveney's crew conducted media audits by reviewing
publications and coverage of topics related to prescription drugs
and patient access. Initial research showed that Louisianans had
the worst overall health statistics of any state in the nation (in
addition to the highest poverty rate). Secondary research revealed
that Helpingpatients.org's primary target groups -- the uninsured,
under-insured and underserved -- were disproportionately high in
their percentages of minorities and in the number of poorer
geographic areas.
Research also showed that having local practitioners pitch
regional media would be more effective than having a Big Easy-based
firm pitch to media outlets in Wyoming, New Jersey and other
states. Deveney tapped each state's top patient-advocate groups and
leaders who could provide a strong ethnic outreach. While the
message was national in scope, most people get their news through
local outlets, so it became important to position it as a story
relevant for, say, Nebraska or Louisiana.
The key was translating it into a local message, hence the
development of a PR network and garnering third parties. "We won
over nationally by winning over the people in local communities,"
Deveney says. Another obstacle was a video news release (VNR), sent
out before the launch, made it much more difficult to follow-up
with announcements. "It was challenging to try and get some more
energy going when a VNR had already gone out," he adds.
The fact that the service was both free and confidential was
important. "The more patient-advocate groups used the system, the
more praise they had for it," Deveney says. "Leaders of health
organizations, usually non-profit, became enthusiastic
advocates."
With a budget of $71,000, Deveney gave the consultants an hourly
limit for the assignment, ranging from five to 13.5 hours per
state, depending on priorities. Time was tracked through the use of
proprietary software called Time Tracker that allowed PhRMA
to shift resources according to need. Louisiana was selected as the
state in which to introduce the Web site, and PhRMA President Alan
Holmer flew in to announce the launch in April 2003.
What was the benefit for PhRMA, which has since launched an
online registry of clinical trials? "We recognize, as an industry,
we have some image repair work to do," Johnson says, "but the very
fact that we have these programs attests to the altruistic nature
of the industry."
Of course, Big Pharma needs all the brownie points it can get in
light of the Vioxx debacle (PR News, Nov. 17, 2004).
"PhRMA's mission was simply to provide access to quality health
care," Deveney says. "But time and again, we hit walls or stumbling
blocks, especially with the media, which has a more cynical view.
There's tremendous bias against large pharmaceutical companies, and
PhRMA was not treated objectively. We needed to make sure the media
would get it, instead of focusing on the millions of dollars this
or that company makes in profit."
Adds Johnson, "There was skepticism on the part of local
journalists that there was nothing local or new about this, but we
were able to neutralize this through rigorous media efforts."
As for results, Deveney Communications placed 726 print, TV,
radio and online stories in the likes of the Akron Beacon
Journal, the Arizona Daily Star, the Chicago
Tribune, the Denver Post, the Wall Street
Journal, WebMD and Yahoo! Health, accomplishing 100% of its
objectives. "Just the fact that there were 35,000 applications
downloaded in first 95 days speaks volumes about how great the need
is," Deveney says. "We got coverage in all 27 specific states, and
we got picked up in 14 additional states as well as Europe, Mexico
and Canada because the story proved to be such good news."
Other results included Louisiana's top 14 organizations
attending the Baton Rouge launch reception and/or the New Orleans
press conference the next day, connecting with the LSU Health
Services Center -- a leading state advocate for health care --
and providing additional media-trained spokespeople to target other
groups.
The initiative proved so successful that one year later, PhRMA
created a follow-up campaign that was more focused on media
relations and involved more events, receptions and press
conferences. Another follow-up is planned for this year. "PhRMA was
not interested in blowing its horn, but more in focusing on the
value and significance of the online clearinghouse," Deveney says.
PRN
Contacts: Ken Johnson, 202.835.3400, [email protected]; John
Deveney, 504.949.3999, [email protected]
Changing The Face Of Big Pharma
The biggest challenge to PhRMA's campaign was the bias the media
had against the pharmaceutical industry, says John Deveney, head of
Deveney Communications. While he saw PhRMA as a "hero," "villain"
was the word the media more commonly used. So how can PR execs get
across altruistic actions when the client has a lousy reputation?
By offering solid accurate information.
"People are reasonable when you give them good information,"
Deveney says. "It was clear that the media recognized the value and
benefits this Web site offered. Everything written about
Helpingpatients.org. focused on what an outstanding program this
was; how it would benefit people; and how, for the first time ever,
there was an easy, 24-hour access system to tap into existing
programs." Deveney also offered the media stories of how the Web
site affected individual lives, "so journalists were interested and
more willing to do stories."