New ABPI chief executive to focus on industry reputation
pharmafile | September 8, 2011 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | ABPI, industry relations
The new chief executive of the ABPI used his first public speech to focus on the reputation of the pharma industry.
Stephen Whitehead took over from the industry association’s long standing director general Richard Barker in June, and joins at a crucial time for UK pharma as it grapples with major drug pricing reforms and a radical shake up of the NHS.
He used his first public speech to focus on classic ABPI principles: innovation, joint working and UK opportunities, but focused primarily on the pharma industry’s reputation.
The ABPI has long acknowledged that the public sometimes sees UK pharma in a negative light, and Whitehead is making a concerted effort to lift its reputation during his tenure.
In his speech at the ABPI’s new Victoria Street offices in London he said: “As [chief executive] of the ABPI my role is to represent our industry, and I am prepared to recognise that we have not always got it right in the past.
“We must examine our legacy, and we must improve the way we are perceived. Reputation challenges will cause problems to working partnerships between our industry and the NHS, and this will not help patients. We have made progress in this area, but we still have some way to go.”
He said the pharma industry was “part of the solution, not the problem” and, in the current time of financial constraint, the role of industry is “more crucial than ever before”.
This new way also includes regularly updated posts on the ABPI’s new website, which Whitehead uses to respond to negative stories on the national press about the pharma industry or about wider issues to do with health and medicines.
Whitehead is well used to this type of firefighting, having spent the last six years in financial communications after earlier stints in pharma at Eli Lilly and Glaxo Wellcome UK.
Pharma-NHS joint working
Another theme of the meeting was the benefits that joint working between pharma and the NHS can bring, and this was further outlined by the event’s second speaker Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief science officer at the Department of Health.
She said the innovation pharma brings is essential for the UK, and the DH would be working closely with the ABPI on its collaborative paper Diffusion of innovation in the NHS.
Ben Adams
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