For aura enthusiasts, puppy fanatics and pharma marketing gurus alike, the inaugural Fierce Pharma Week looked pretty sweet.
Through the translucent walls of the press lounge at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Fierce editorial team kept its finger on the pulse of the event, whether that meant pivoting hours ahead of a planned policy panel when the White House shadow dropped a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report, scheduling some last-minute podcasts with on-demand guests or scouting out the quickest route to RxVantage’s unmissable soft pretzel wall.
That Fierce deployed a team of journalists to the event marks a break with tradition, signaling that life sciences marketing, communications, commercialization and medical affairs are more critical now than ever for the rapidly changing industry we cover.
“Keep doing what you’re doing” was the mantra Jim Potter, executive director at the Coalition for Healthcare Communication (CHC), landed on during a Tuesday panel on pharma marketing and outreach in an increasingly tense U.S. policy environment.
In a timely turn of events, the panel took place in parallel with the release of a key MAHA report to President Donald Trump, plus a memorandum from the president directing the FDA to crack down on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertisements.
Despite the administration’s saber rattling, the Supreme Court has established some protections for commercial speech under the First Amendment, and the CHC itself has already organized a legal defense team and prepared research-backed talking points to help the industry hold its ground against an increasingly fiery rhetorical backdrop, Potter noted.
“It really is framing what you do every day, why you do it, how you help patients, how our industry really impacts good for patients, how it helps them,” he told the Fierce Pharma Week audience.
As biopharma and healthcare communications specialists navigate the changing policy landscape in the U.S., they should look to that core, patient-focused principle for guidance and take strides to make their messaging both relatable and authentic.
That was the takeaway from a panel on healthcare storytelling last Tuesday, which featured insights from National CineMedia’s chief data and innovation officer Manu Singh, Sanofi’s director of omnichannel orchestration and launch Peter Dannenfelser and Real Housewife of New York City Kelly Killoren Bensimon, whose own experience being on camera prompted her to open up about her psoriasis diagnosis.
Aside from simply making a splash with a celebrity endorsement, drugmakers also have the opportunity to combat misinformation when they tap influential public figures for their communications, Sanofi’s Dannenfelser said.
Meanwhile, meeting patients where they are by making facts accessible through unconventional channels like pre-movie advertisements at theaters could further help to cut through health-related noise and misinformation, according to CineMedia’s Singh.
Indeed, many of the most trusted and credible voices in healthcare are still absent from the social media space, Mikhail Varshavski, D.O.—more commonly known by his online nom de guerre Doctor Mike—said during a conversation with Syneos Health’s Marcie Doser and Andrea Dagger during the event.
“All my loved ones, all my friends, almost all my patients, the first time they get a diagnosis or they feel a symptom, they open their phones and they go on social media,” he said. “It's natural to do that.
“So, us being snobby in the medical community and saying we're above social media was a mistake,” Varshavski continued. "If pharma, if influencers, if the health industry, all come together with an approach of honesty, integrity and transparency, I think everyone can be a little bit more on the same path.”
At the end of the day, patients want to be heard by the companies that support their health journeys: “We want a voice in the matter,” said Jamie-Lynn Sigler, "The Sopranos" actress and multiple sclerosis patient, at this year’s Fierce Pharma Week opening keynote.
To best meet the patients they serve, drugmakers must keep a “line of communication open” with them, said Sigler, who’s worked with Novartis to help promote the pharma’s MS treatment Kesimpta and co-developed a guide with the company to support people through their MS diagnosis.
While the tone was often reflective at this year’s Pharma Week proceedings, a sense of resilience and commitment to the critical work pharma communications and marketing teams do resonated throughout the event.
That energy and purpose were bolstered, no doubt, by the presence of legendary Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron “Jaws” Jaworski Tuesday night. He shared insights from his 17-year NFL career and discussed the Jaws Youth Playbook, a nonprofit he founded that has provided nearly $10 million to at-risk youth.
That same spirit carried through the rest of Fierce Pharma Week, where the buzz was undeniable—fueled by the cross-pollination of ideas and a steady stream of caffeine from the PulsePoint espresso bar. And fear not, dear readers, for even if you missed the festivities in Philadelphia last week, Fierce Pharma has carefully analyzed the myriad swag, sponsored diversions and corporate-colored comestibles on offer at the event.
The pretzels over at RxVantage’s booth were indeed delicious and locally sourced, while the sweets at Mesdcape’s competing donut wall weren’t half bad, either. The icing was also appropriately “twilight blue.”
The pooches on display on the GoodRx-sponsored puppy park were no slouches either, though, we are sad to report, no Fierce journalists made it home with a new four-legged friend this year. That said, at least one Fierce Pharma-affiliated cat is benefiting from the delivery of a moon-shaped Alphanumeric stress ball.
And in case you were wondering about the vibes that drive the Fierce editorial team, the aura portrait studio propped up by Health Monitor said that we were largely orange and violet-type people. Those aura colors denote creativity and thoughtfulness, respectively, for the uninitiated.
Meanwhile, the jury is still out on results from the two attendees overheard plotting a small trial to see if their auras looked different on successive days of the conference.