GLOBALHealthPR Working Well Together. And With New Partners.

Principals of GLOBALHealthPR public relations firms gathered in Lisbon, Portugal, this week for our annual general meeting, hosted for 2013 by Guess What and one of its founders, Jorge Azevedo.

Marie-Hélène Coste (MHC, France), Jorge Azevedo (host from Guess What, Portugal), Paul Jans (VIVA!, Australia), Eugenia de la Fuente (Paradigma PEL, Argentina) and Dinesh Chindarkar (MediaMedic, India)

Yap Boh Tiong and Patsy Phay Mileage Communications, Singapore) and Paola de la Barreda (PR Partners, Mexico)

As our first order of business, we welcomed Patsy Phay and Yap Boh Tiong of Singapore-based Mileage Communications as our newest GLOBALHealthPR partners. Mileage is the leading independent public relations firm with offices also in Thailand, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. “As with our other new partners here, Mileage offers ‘indigenous’ expertise in communications counsel,” said Boh Tiong. “For instance, we do not insert a PR manager from Singapore to another country. We believe in offering genuine local expertise, and we stand apart that way,” he said.

GLOBALHealthPR now offers its clients health and life science specialty public relations in 23 countries worldwide.

Amid updates on each of the partner firms, the conversation turned most lively over discussion of the potential of digital and mobile media. Whether in India, Singapore, Argentina, the UK, Spain or Australia, all partners agreed that reaching audiences with best-in-class mobile, digital and social media/listening activities are critical to effective PR outreach by health industry and medical societies in the future.

The partners also shared many of the challenges facing pharmaceutical company marketers, country-by-country, including dealing with market access.

Ken Rabin, PhD, representing Alfa in Poland, discussed the opportunity to submit health care public relations research papers to authoritative journals, as Juan Luis Recio Diaz (Berbes Asociados, Spain) and Danilo Tovo (Tino Comunications, Brazil) look on.

We also premiered the availability of volume 3.0 of the Global Guide to Pharma Marketing Codes, the only country-specific guide to pharmaceutical communications available.

All-in-all, an invigorating day. Despite the economic ordeal facing many countries, health care remains a consistent priority and communications opportunity.