Real-Time News & Business Readiness

An Example of Why It Makes All The Difference

May 14, 2002

All Information Is Not Equal

INFORMATIONINFORMATIONYOU CAN USE

It’s All In The Timing

$2 $2 million

Pharma: Not Just Supply & Demand

• Pharmaceutical market is vastly more complex than other, supply-and-demand industries

• Intense pressures greet drugs going to market– Government agency approvals, monitoring– Legal system– Clinical trials– Profound R&D costs, restraints– Domestic and international regulation– Payer/Provider issues

The Result

• General business environment is challenging at best– Anything at any time can thwart or spur a drug’s journey

to or place in the market– Real-time information doesn’t just arm navigation of

departments or careers, but the entire business

Goal: An Optimal Posture of Business Readiness

For Example

• PAL: Organized Consumers Fighting Back– Prescription Access Litigation Project, founded Jan. 2001– Coalition of 70 consumer advocacy groups in 34 states– Targeted drug companies with expiring patents (vast minority in

market)– PAL’s goal: open up generic market, decrease cost of drugs– Tool of choice: class action litigation

• Between 3/01 and 12/01, PAL launched initiatives against six major drug therapies

Did It Matter In the Market?

• From April to December, 250 articles and broadcast news stories on lawsuit– New York Times and The Wall Street Journal;

National Public Radio; a profile on CBS Evening News Eye on America series; and consistent coverage by local news outlets across the US

– Total impressions: over 150 million– All with consumer bent

• Government takes notice (State AGs, US Senate)

Absolutely

Industry Response

• Access to real-time news enabled industry to know and then respond appropriately to news

• And companies responded with strong messaging:– It’s not true.– Drugs are expensive to make. Understand that R&D is a

big investment and not all drugs are successful.– We’re the good guys.

• Coordinated PR and advertising campaign

Conclusion

• “Readiness” is critical for business– A culture that expects the unexpected– Understands information is key; smooth information flow within

corporations tantamount• Information now, information past

– Communication—internal & external—that is based on real perceptions and real facts does have the potential to impact the bottom line

• Messaging is real and passes muster– Every department vested in the message and the context

Thank You