When it comes to having a communication strategy in place, Donna L LaVoie of LaVoie Group explains why integrated media platforms have a key role to play
Whether your company is a large pharmaceutical, speciality pharmaceutical or biotechnology company, the effective integration of public and investor relations is critical in today’s ever-changing environment.
The advent of the internet and the digital world has altered the field forever, and, as such, communications functions have been altered immensely. Today, with the prevalence of Web 2.0 (web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing) and Web 3.0 (the personalisation of web applications) as integral pieces of the communications discipline, the need to work across key functional areas within communications and other key work streams such as regulatory, legal and medical affairs has been highlighted.
Traditional PR tactics have rules and expectations that are usually followed to the letter. For news announcements, PR firms generally recommend selecting a date around launches, milestones and/or conferences, issuing the news at 08:30 on a particular day and then monitoring print publications for resulting stories. If the article was negative, the PR firm would call that reporter and request a correction (if possible). In today’s Web 2.0 reality, these rules of engagement do not apply, and press releases are no longer handled as a ‘one size fits all’ solution.
With alert-based technologies from online publications, subscriber newsletters, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Google alerts, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to name just a few, ‘push’ technologies now send out information on your brand to you, and other interested parties, in real-time and from multiple sources. For many companies, this fact can be overwhelming, especially for public companies that are trying to get their heads around a multitude of sources discussing their brand.
In addition to the well-recognised sources such as media, analysts and thought leaders, companies now have to contend with bloggers, ex-employees and individual investors that may have an axe to grind. Ignoring a scathing blog or a viral video could have a negative impact on shareholder opinion and stock price. On the flip side, with a wealth of new media outlets to pursue, the current climate can be considered a renaissance for public relations.
This brave new world provides challenges for some companies. If organisations have not integrated their communications efforts across investor and public relations with the company’s marketing plan, there could be several clashes across the board. These new technologies offer an opportunity for businesses to collaborate internally and provide seamless integration across the various marketing and communications disciplines. Companies who recognise this need are leading the way in providing a seamless and consistent set of messages and brand positioning to its various constituencies.
As large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies continue the trend to in-license or purchase technologies, development-stage assets and commercialised products to help them manage future growth, the management of their communications functions changes significantly. This is particularly true as large pharmaceutical companies have experienced patent expirations of blockbuster products and the rewards of their internal R&D efforts have not always panned out.
Several large pharmaceutical companies have announced initiatives to begin efforts in orphan disease, generic pharmaceuticals, animal health and over-the-counter products. As part of their plans, many are competing for the most promising technologies and assets. As they are successful in bringing these product pipelines as well as technologies into their companies, they find themselves challenged with communications issues that they may have never experienced before. Many of these challenges are deeply rooted in the integration of investor relations, public relations and general corporate communications and the need to update regularly with public company investors and analysts. Let’s examine one case study that displays the real situation that many companies on both sides are challenged with.
CASE STUDY
The Situation
A large, multinational pharmaceutical company in-licenses product X in a field in which they have never worked before (from a small European biotechnology company). While both companies are publicly traded, they trade on different exchanges and have market caps and dynamics that are different from one another. Materiality of information is not shared by the two companies and they do not share the same objectives.
Herein lies the potential problem. The large, multinational pharmaceutical company has purchased product X and transitions it away from the small company. It feels strongly about becoming the owner of the asset and owns communications across the four key audiences: patients, payers, physicians and partners. It does not have a need to inform the investing public of its intentions or provide updates as it is immaterial to them.
The European biotechnology company was the developer of product X. This company’s top audience is the investment community. While other groups should be important to them, the reality is that they have not put resources into attracting other audiences, which is the basis for having the large, multinational pharmaceutical company as its partner. Product X is the small company’s core product and is crucial not only to the business, but to the management responsible for bringing it from early-stage development into the partnership with the large pharmaceutical company for commercialisation.
The European biotechnology company understands that their expertise is in development and in innovation – something that many large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have not delivered in the last few years. Nonetheless, their need for transparency and communication of their progress to the investment community on a regular basis is not something many companies think about in great detail prior to signing the deal.
The Solution
Whether you represent the large pharmaceutical or the small biotech company, you may ask yourself, what do we do now?
First and foremost, you need an experienced team of communications specialists that not only understand the needs of small, publicly-traded companies, but who can also put their large company hats on as well. Providing possible solutions to the problems helps to bridge the gap between the two companies. At times it is easy to sees things as black and white. In order to be successful in these situations, one must be able to bring examples and perspectives that help foster creative solutions to the challenges.
These skills, the experience to navigate through the rough currents of partnership communications, and the integration of the various disciplines, are important to the ultimate success of the partnership. Excellent negotiation skills and good communication, as well as relationships with other key functional areas, are essential to producing successful outcomes. This includes working across media relations, investor relations, regulatory and medical affairs, public affairs and advocacy as well as marketing.
Whether you are working with another company in which you have in-licensed a product or if you are going it alone, there needs to be an alignment upfront with all of your key internal stakeholders on the overall communications approach, an agreement on potential news flow and milestones, including medical meeting participation as well as data dissemination and CME programmes. Questions surrounding the duty to update as well as FDA (or its equivalent country regulatory authority)/DDMAC-compliance issues need to be addressed in order to ensure that FDA marketing rules are not being violated. Partnering with an experienced SEC and regulatory legal counsel is also very important.
Advocacy programme initiatives, public affairs tactics and promotional efforts that affect the communications need to be included in the communications plan. The needs of internal communications also have to be included. A protocol developed to take into consideration all of the potential news flow, along with specific scenarios and sign-off, could be one way to manage the challenges ahead.
Five steps to integrated partner communications are:
- Experienced communications professionals in place
- Good negotiation and collaboration skills
- Agreement with internal stakeholders on the communications approach and plan
- Development of a communications plan
- Development of a protocol on communications initiatives
Integrated communications across various disciplines plays a vital role in business today. Companies that design their organisations and provide incentives to work together will be at the forefront of building brands with clear and consistent messaging. Having key members on your team that have the experience and solutions for today’s challenges will prove critical to successful positioning.
