PMA EXPANDING PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT

Executive Summary

PMA EXPANDING PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT with a program designed to extend its message to audiences outside the Washington, D.C. area. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said its board "authorized an expansion of its communications program to emphasize the value of the industry's contributions to health and health care cost containment through research." The association will continue its industry information campaign through advertising space in D.C.-area publications, such as the Washington Post and the Congressional Quarterly. However, PMA additionally has contracted with the Baltimore-based public relations consultant Eisner & Associates to spread the PMA gospel outside the capital area. Under a contract said to be in the $5-$7 mil. range, PMA will place print ads in publications designed to target volunteer health groups, such as the American Cancer Society, and health care opinion leaders representing the elderly and other patient populations. Eisner President Steve Eisner is a former project associate with APCO, the Arnold & Porter Consulting group based in D.C. Although the contract is for one year, the PMA board is said to have committed to a multiple-year communications program for the industry. In a Dec. 9 press announcement, PMA President Gerald Mossinghoff said "most Americans do not know" much "important factual information" about the drug industry. For example, he said, they do not know "that the industry will invest over $9 bil. this year in the search for new medicines or that the vast majority of pharmaceutical breakthroughs come from the research- based industry."