Alfa Communications

How appropriate that GLOBALHealthPR Australia partner VIVA! Communications chose Alexion’s David Kwasha to share his personal and Company views on rare diseases on World Rare Disease Day during our two-day annual general meeting in Sydney, Australia last week.

He challenged our group of leading, independent health-focused public relations firms to do more to advance the cause of rare diseases, and in particular, ultra-rare diseases.

In the U.S., a rare disease affects fewer than 200,000 persons, and an ultra-rare disease, fewer than 6,000.

David seemed happy to know that GLOBALHealthPR has already supported the location and identification of nearly 100 percent more children with Progeria, most definitely an ultra-rare disease in which children age rapidly. To date, about 110 children have been identified living with Progeria, an increase from 50 or so just five years ago. We titled our campaign “Find the other 150” because at the time, about 200 Progeria children were estimated worldwide. [Read more…] about Realizing Rare Opportunities

I have been counseling pharmaceutical and other healthcare brand managers about public relations for 35 years. And while brand managers today are much more sophisticated and analytic than they were back in the 70s and 80s, I continue to be at least a bit dismayed about the way they perceive public relations and how it fits into the product marketing mix.

Perhaps what follows are the musings of a public relations person who is past his prime and ready for whatever ultimate fate awaits people who do what I do for a living, but the biggest mistakes I still see healthcare brand managers make about PR are as follows:

1.      Bringing the PR Consultant in too late
2.      Failing to accept that all products (and companies) are flawed
3.      Underestimating the power of patients
4.      Stinting on evaluating the impact of PR on audiences
5.      Assuming that PR is a commodity

[Read more…] about Five Mistakes Healthcare Brand Managers Make about Public Relations

Dr. Ken Rabin and Andrzej Kropiwnicki of Alfa Communications, GLOBALHealthPR’s partner in Poland, will be featured in an upcoming issue of Public Relations Review, the oldest academic journal dedicated solely to public relations. Their precise analysis of two key health PR cases in Poland emphasizes the need for professionals to avoid pitfalls of the unprepared. A lot has changed since 2009 when the most recent edition of the Global Public Relations Handbook was published.

Is the handbook alone enough for global health communications professionals who do business in foreign markets? The authors answer this question and more. [Read more…] about GLOBALHealthPR Partners to be featured in preeminent peer-reviewed PR journal