Shire and Lundbeck have
claimed the top title of marketing companies of the year in the prestigious
PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition, the results of which were
announced in London.
Lundbeck was named UK Marketing Company of the Year
and Shire, International Marketing Company of the Year. This is the third year
in a row that Shire has won the company title. Shire was also successful in
other categories, scooping Marketing Team of the Year (Martin Smith, Lindsay
Burbidge, Craig Dimblebee, Richard Knight and Louise Finke), while Eva Panarese
was named International Marketer of the Year. Meanwhile, Lundbeck took home
other wins – New Marketer of the Year went to Andrew Jackson, and Lance
Boyd-Clark was awarded Aspiring Marketing Manager of the Year.More than 75 marketers from 28 global pharmaceutical companies took part in the annual competency-based benchmarking competition, where finalists were tasked with a role-play challenge based on current healthcare trends. This year, PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year marks its 20th anniversary and the competition has expanded to include both UK and international marketers.
Other winners on the night were: Simon Evans, Napp Pharmaceuticals, for Aspiring Marketer of the Year; Michael Short, Merck Serono, for Senior Marketer UK; Artur Krzyzanowski, Bristol-Myers Squibb, for Senior Marketer Non-UK.
The Marketer of the Year Competition also coincided with the unique, customer-nominated PharmaTimes Communications Team of the Year 2013, which this year saw finalists from a range of healthcare communications agencies from small independents to global agencies including ICC Lowe, PAN, Red Door Communications and ApotheCom.
Litmus (inVentiv Health) was named Communications Agency Team of the Year, NHS Challenge, while ICC Lowe was awarded the Pharma for Communications Agency Team of the Year, International Challenge.
Sean Morgan-Jones, PharmaTimes’ director, says the PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition is a good opportunity for individuals to benchmark themselves against peers but also put themselves to the test in a real-life simulation challenge and gain feedback. “Even for game-changing innovative new medicines with a positive health technology assessment, patients are not guaranteed access and so uptake is a real issue for the industry. So finalists taking part in the Marketer of the Year competition were put through a number of exercises based on a fictitious medicine and therapy area to explore this critical aspect of marketing in today’s multi stakeholder environment.”
Danny McCormick, sales and marketing manager, oncology, at Merck Serono, and vice chair of the competition’s executive steering committee, said: “PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition sets itself apart from other competitions by focusing solely on the individual’s and team’s marketing skills, expertise and thinking. There is a major focus on professional development in the form of feedback, which every entrant is encouraged to receive from the judges on a one-to-one basis, and in networking with industry peers.”
He added: “The standard of entries was once again very high in the 2013 competition and the range of different companies represented has increased, which makes the competition even more valuable. It was really pleasing to see some entrants who have progressed since the 2012 competition and now competing at a higher level, which just goes to show what a difference it can make.”
Recognised as the leading awards for pharmaceutical marketing professionals, the Marketer and Communications Team competitions are unique competency-based programmes that invite individual and team finalists to compete in a real-life challenge devised and judged by senior marketing and healthcare leaders from companies including Merck Serono, Roche, Lilly, Lundbeck, Actelion, Shire and GSK. The aim of the competition is not only to recognise and reward marketing excellence but also to provide professional development through extensive feedback, peer benchmarking and mentoring as well as providing wider industry learnings on marketing skills and competencies.