The importance of Communication in the Pharmaceutical industry

Organizations sometimes wonder what they should do to "have" news, as they wish to appear in the media frequently but believe they might not produce enough newsworthy content. In this regard, it's crucial to remember, first, that the mission of a Communication officer in any organization is not to seek "news" but to seek "information." From this raw information, a Communication officer should construct a news story. Secondly, there are always reasons to create news; it's not only necessary for something to "happen," but news can arise from multiple factors.
 
Nothing is easier, nor does it bring one closer to public opinion, than the image and voice of a senior executive attending to journalists and informing the public through them about issues of public and/or corporate interest in which the company might be involved. However, the pharmaceutical industry, with few exceptions, has traditionally been a faceless world.
 
Pharmaceutical companies (except for a few) have been "silent" entities, fearful of conveying their activities, their stances... and when they do, it is almost always dictated by Marketing, thus tainting what should be pure journalistic information with advertising.
 
To understand this world of communication in the pharmaceutical industry, nothing is better than critically reviewing some of the most controversial aspects of it, things that should be done but almost never are, logical approaches that illogically are not put into practice...
 
We will talk about "Communication Directors" (DIRCOMs in common parlance); about "Transparency," something notably absent in the pharmaceutical industry; about the pharmaceutical business to clarify - it seems they don't get it - that pharmaceutical companies are not NGOs but commercial enterprises; about what is now called "Human Resources" so they truly understand how motivation and trust in employees yield better results than oversight and fear of losing one's job; about "Doctors," because many work in this industry and even more collaborate with it, and communication from pharmaceutical companies is directed at them, as well as pharmacists, nursing professionals, and other healthcare professionals; and finally, we will also discuss "Journalism," specifically "Corporate Journalism," because journalists are the intermediaries between the information generated by pharmaceutical companies and its end recipients, the general public, and more specifically, the patients who hope to improve their health with these medications.
 
Image. - A crystal globe sphere given to attendees at the "First AZ Global PR Conference," held in Chester (United Kingdom) on September 6th and 7th, 2000, coinciding with the spectacular rise in communication and informational transparency in the pharmaceutical industry... which only lasted a few years. Therefore, we will continue to fight for informational transparency to return to pharmaceutical companies, for them to understand that "journalistic information" is one thing and "advertising" quite another, and for good journalism professionals to be hired by labs with the freedom to practice their profession.
 

An enthralling story of love, friendship and honor in the Olympic Games (2,600 years ago)
“Life debt” (Vicente Fisac, Amazon): https://a.co/d/hono34C