ABPI to no longer ‘shy away’ from big issues
pharmafile | June 27, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Callaghan, NHS, VBP, Whitehead
The ABPI will actively seek to tackle tough issues like animal testing and clinical trial problems, as it looks to remove its ‘old Volvo’ image.
Speaking at the PR Week conference Amanda Callaghan, corporate communications director for the ABPI, said: “The ABPI was thought to be very reactive, very slow. The tone was very urgent and demanding, there was only one tone a lot of the time.
“When we did member surveys the terms ‘old Volvo’ and ‘elephant’ were used to describe us.”
She added: “[But] we now have more media coverage. Neither Stephen [Whitehead, the ABPI’s chief executive] nor I shy away from conversations that the industry finds difficult.”
In the past 18 months the ABPI have created a new team to take it into the 21st century which includes Whitehead, who comes from a communications background. Add to that a new media team, and two new roles in the form of a director of stakeholder engagement and a director of policy and public affairs.
The UK pharma group has also spent time re-branding: it has a new website, logo and even a new (and smaller) premises in central London, which it shares with the BIA.
A senior pharma source told PR Week that the ABPI’s comms had improved, adding: “They are more vocal on issues such as the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme.”
Comment
The ABPI is gearing up for the Value-based Pricing negotiations that begins this autumn, and looks to be gaining confidence at an opportune moment.
It has certainly become more media savvy in the past year, and in the interviews and conversations this reporter has had with the group, it is clear they are looking to become more vocal on many topics.
This includes Whitehead’s speech at this year’s ABPI conference in London, where he defended a member’s legal action against the NHS saying he was confident the firm wouldn’t lose its case.
This is a marked deviation from previous leaders of the ABPI, who would never have been so publicly forthright on such a thorny issue.
It looks to be working hard to remove itself from any ‘stuffy’ image it had before, and having a leader with experience in communciations will help enhance this new image.
Ben Adams
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