Roche PR Spins Straw into Golden Cure

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Pat Thomas writes that the breast cancer drug Herceptin "prolongs a few lives for an average of four months at a cost of £400,000 per life extended, and for the majority of women for whom it does not work there is an increased risk of severe heart damage and the spread of their cancer to the central nervous system." Yet, the British press has declared it a "miracle cure," thanks to savvy PR. On behalf of drugmaker Roche, a Ketchum employee called reporter and cancer patient Lisa Jardine, offering her "the chance to ... do paid talks at Roche seminars and ... help find[ing] funding for her own use of Herceptin. ... 'She said she would make it worth my while,'" Jardine said. An employee at another of Roche's PR firms, Porter Novelli, volunteered her services to the group Women Fighting for Herceptin. The group successfully promoted many "unhappy women who couldn't get their hands on the drug, [who were] willing to tell their stories to TV, radio and the newspapers."

Main Source: 
The Ecologist (UK), July / August 2006
Topics: 
Health
Pharmaceuticals
Public Relations

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Diane Farsetta replied on

Thanks to Bob Burton for calling my attention to earlier articles about Roche's full PR press for Herception. Of particular interest is an article in PR Week UK ("[http://www.prweek.com/uk/search/article/521600// Analysis: The drug buoyed by patient power]," October 13, 2005, sub req'd):

Tonic Life Communications CEO Scott Clark, who was involved in global pre-launch work for Herceptin at his previous agency, concurs: 'This is one of those legacy campaigns, perhaps in the top three in the past decade, that has had genuine impact. If people are sceptical of the power of PR, Roche has a clear case study on how a good story can move markets and mindsets.' ...

Roche uses Ketchum to handle UK PR for the drug. Sébastien Desprez, associate director at the agency, can now reflect on an 'onslaught' of interest. He describes Barbara Clark, with whom Roche says it has only dealt reactively (supplying her with product information, and so on), as 'amazing at orchestrating PR'.

Separately, Fighting for Herceptin (FfH), established by a group of Staffordshire women, has also caught the media's attention. Porter Novelli has, it emerges, been advising FfH for the past month and has a four-strong team on the pro bono account. PN UK healthcare head Rebecca Hunt, who left a job at Roche earlier this year, says: 'I got to know FfH founder Dorothy Griffiths when I was at Roche, and we kept in touch. When Barbara Clark made the news I saw FfH was banging the drum too, and I asked Dorothy if she wanted any professional PR support.'

Another article, by Anne Hall in BMJ, gives a journalist's view of the Herceptin PR push ("[http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/321/7261/644 Ads: Not Another Magic Bullet]," September 9, 2000):

When a public relations company asked me to a press briefing in Milan to hear about this new drug [Herceptin], I hesitated. ...

Dr Paul Ellis, a consultant oncologist at Guy's Hospital, London, also thought that the story should be told. "This is the first targeted treatment for breast cancer," he said, "which has real clinical benefits for the patients we see every day in the clinic. It represents a whole new era of cancer care, and for me that is truly exciting."

Dr Ellis was paid an honorarium of $1000 by the makers or trastuzumab to go to Milan, but said "I was certainly not there as a hired hand for the drug company."

The honorarium, he said, was "normal practice for any clinician attending such a meeting, and takes into account our time away from our families and the overnight stay."