E-DRUG: Call for bad adverts for MaLAM slides www (cont'd)

E-drug: Call for bad adverts for MaLAM slides www (cont'd)
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As Joan Levin rightly points out, marketing is now more about PR. The
examples she quotes are not just one offs.

In this month's Pharmaceutical Marketing Magazine an article points
out: "The industry has begun to realise that PR is an incredibly
effective tool....we (PR firms) are all getting involved earlier and
earlier in the pre-launch phase..."

Patient groups are routinely targeted. The main areas of activity here
seem to be around:

- strategic alliances (ie fostering groups with similar broad
   objectives)
- pre-launch activities (helping to prepare the market)
- information provision (sponsorship of)
- gathering information (market research)

I am doing some preparatory work on links between patient groups
and industry. If anyone has examples of such 'partnerships', I would
love to hear about them. Please send any articles, stories etc to me at
the address shown below. My fear is that the patient-consumer
movement faces being split down the middle and may be hijacked by
commercial interests. What do others think?

Best wishes,

David Gilbert
Kings Fund
11-13 Cavendish Square
London W1M OAN
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