(NaturalNews) Concerned by the increasingly negative public image of their industry, pharmaceutical companies are meeting with major public relations associations in a conference intended to plan public relations strategies for the coming months.
According to a press release, the First Annual Pharmaceutical Public Relations Symposium is intended to "cover key issues and challenges [that drug] companies face in an industry that is under ongoing political and media scrutiny."
Discussion topics at the one-day
conference include "enhancing corporate reputation, social responsibility, issues management, measurement of PR activities and merger of acquisition
public relations strategies."
Participants include pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Serono (owned by Merck) and Wyeth and public relations firms Cision, EXL Pharma, Feinstein Kean Healthcare and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Some of these, such as EXL Pharma are specifically devoted to public relations for the
pharmaceutical industry. The press release describes EXL Pharma as "an emerging leader in developing innovative, educational events that serve the
healthcare community and allied professionals." The company also organizes the yearly Public Relations and Communications Summit for Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Medical Technology.
"It is exciting to have partnered with PRSA and Cision to bring pharmaceutical public relations professionals a one-day refresher symposium on top-of-mind issues for the
industry as we head into 2008," said EXL Pharma's managing director, Bryon Main. "This industry will be under even higher scrutiny in an election year."
Main promised to help attendees figure out how to "improve the perception" of their
companies and products "among key stakeholders."
Critics of the pharmaceutical industry, however, call the conference a "
Big Pharma spin camp." Consumer
health advocate Mike Adams said, "This conference is an event that, in my opinion, focuses on teaching marketing people how to lie to the public about the dangers of
pharmaceuticals. It's all a desperate effort to continue to deceive lawmakers, politicians and consumers about the harmful effects of pharmaceuticals and the complete lack of honest evidence showing their usefulness."
Representatives from
the FDA will also participate in the conference, and will give a speech entitled "Communicating More Effectively with the
FDA." The FDA employees will tell
pharmaceutical companies what to expect as the agency's key priorities in 2008.
"That's not difficult to guess," said Adams. "The FDA's key priorities are to promote
drugs and outlaw or censor anything that competes with drugs."
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