Aurora to raise European allergy awareness for UCB Pharma
pharmafile | July 26, 2006 | News story | Medical Communications |Â Â Â
Healthcare communications agency Aurora has won a pan-European account to promote UCB Pharma's non-sedating prescription antihistamine Xyzal.
The agency, based in Camden, will work on raising allergy awareness among GPs and consumers and aims to highlight the difference between persistent allergic rhinitis and seasonal allergies, for example hay fever. It intends to launch its campaign in September simultaneously in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Greece and Portugal.
With this in mind, the agency is carrying out research to enable it to tailor its various campaign materials to suit each individual country, although Claire Eldridge, Aurora's joint managing director, declined to give details.
Eldridge said: "Allergy sufferers do tend to be prescribed antihistamines, but GPs are not distinguishing between patients who might suffer for two weeks in the summer and those who are suffering all year round."
Sixteen per cent of the UK population suffers from allergic rhinitis and of these 8% have persistent symptoms, 6% both persistent and seasonal symptoms, and 2% seasonal symptoms alone. Persistent allergic rhinitis is usually set off by allergens such as dust mites or particular foods and occurs for at least four days a week for more than four consecutive weeks.
Xyzal has been on the market since 2001 and it became the first antihistamine to receive EU approval for persistent allergic rhinitis in December 2004. Its European licence allows it to also treat the seasonal form of allergic rhinitis, but Aurora will be focusing on the more common persistent form of the condition.
The six-figure UCB account involves a media campaign with an online element, and will run for at least 18 months until December 2007. The consumer part of the campaign will look at the impact of allergies on sufferers' lives, but alongside this, a medical one will be run aimed at primary care, which Eldridge said would look at educating GPs in the best way to treat persistent allergic rhinitis.
When looking for a treatment for persistent allergies, sufferers tend to go to the chemist rather than their GP, and Aurora intends to highlight Xyzal's potency and 24-hour action compared with OTC antihistamines like GlaxoSmithKline's Piriton.
"We're trying to educate GPs that if people are suffering from persistent allergic rhinitis, they need to consider how they are treating them and if a stronger antihistamine would be appropriate," Eldridge said.
Commenting on the proposed campaign, UCB's European PR manager for Xyzal Bily Kuo said: "Aurora has demonstrated a deep understanding of our brand and has developed a creatively targeted and innovative campaign to reach all our stakeholders."
Aurora joint managing director Neil Crump previously handled the European Xyzal account at Athena Medical PR, where he was board director until September 2005.
He then set up Aurora in December last year with Eldridge, who was previously at Fleishman-Hillard Healthcare – the pair met when both worked at CPR Worldwide five years ago. Since then, the agency has acquired a number of clients and recent wins include Roche, the MHRA and Idis.
The agency is currently working on Roche's HIV portfolio of Fuzeon and Invirase 500 with a UK medical communications brief to educate physicians and HIV support groups on the latest HIV therapy information. It will be working with support groups, information sources and journalists in the gay press.
"There are thousands of HIV support groups around the country, lots of them online, and we're making sure they're up-to-date and have got the right information," Eldridge said.
Aurora was recently appointed by the MHRA to carry out some key message training on a project basis and is also working on raising awareness within pharma of Idis, which is best known for its pre-launch, named-patients programmes. The agency will be focusing on Idis' product discontinuations and temporary supply service.
