Strutt appointed to Crestor global PR role
pharmafile | May 16, 2005 | News story | Medical Communications |Â Â Â
AstraZeneca has made a key appointment to its global PR for its statin brand Crestor.
Ben Strutt spent six years as a journalist at the BBC and most recently held the position of community affairs manager at '3' the third generation videomobile phone company.
The launch of '3' was the biggest ever launch of a start-up company, and Strutt was in charge of handling public and political relations in the north of England.
Concerns about the impact of new mobile phone masts and base stations on the health of local populations and the environment made the area a challenging PR task, and Strutt's frontline experience in this field helped him secure the global role at AstraZeneca.
Crestor has been the focus of continued negative press in the UK and US, with continuing doubts over safety blighting its challenge to Pfizer's market leading brand Lipitor.
AstraZeneca has maintained an active defence of its brand against allegations, particularly in the US where consumer activists Public Citizen have repeatedly demanded Crestor's withdrawal.
Despite the doubts about safety, Crestor has now achieved blockbuster status, hitting $1 billion in sales after just 18 months on the US market, where the bulk of its prescriptions are written.
Speaking just days after starting work at the company global headquarters in Alderley Park, Strutt said he had already been impressed with the depth of knowledge and expertise in the company's public relations department.
He said regardless of the sector they operate in, companies must be responsive to growing consumer power, and willing to be transparent and open but also to correct misconceptions and inaccuracies whenever they arrive.
"Twenty or thirty years ago consumers didn't feel encouraged to challenge or debate things that corporations or even GPs told them. The development in the consumers' minds is that they feel much more empowered to have opinions, whether it on mobile phone companies or pharmaceutical companies."
He said that his first impression of the pharmaceutical sector was that of a highly regulated environment, which demanded greater accuracy and grasp of details from PR executives.
Related articles:
Crestor sales top $1 billion for AstraZeneca
Friday , May 06, 2005
