Highlights from the 2018 PMEA awards

The PMEA awards consist of 13 categories that recognise the efforts of healthcare agencies, pharmaceutical and medical devices companies, charities, patient associations, trade organisations and professional bodies.
Lucid Group won Support Agency of the Year and PMEA judge Daniel Mathews said the agency “clearly demonstrated the evolution of their business and the introduction of the patient voice. They have delivered against their vision and values, while demonstrating a strong growth in revenue and bringing their staff along during this year’s changes. They have shown a great focus on employees, facilitating a work/life balance in an agency setting. This company comes across as a real industry leader.”
The Award for Patient-Centricity, a new award for 2018, was won by Diabetes 360 Clinical Network and Medtronic for their diabetes campaign, which delivered personalised care through the use of e-health, diabetes technology and self-care support. PMEA judge Linda Cowie said: “This campaign truly put patients at the centre and challenged the care model. It demonstrated efficiency, and most importantly it improved the patient experience and self-management.”
Excellence in Healthcare Professional Education Support Programmes (with support from Sciterion) and Excellence in Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs (with support from Lucid) both went to AbbVie on the night, as well as the Excellence in Patient Education and Support award for its Hidradenitis suppurativa patient support website (with support from Biosector 2). Of the latter, PMEA judge, Paul Simpson, said: “This campaign had a big, global reach, with the website being available in many different national versions thanks to support from local affiliates. The campaign was put together with very strong execution and good depth of insights into the condition and the patient experience.”
The Lucid Group Award for Company of the year went to Takeda. Brian Smith, chair of judges for PMEA 2018, said: “Takeda’s management team demonstrated a strong and effective team spirit, with patients at the centre of all their planning. They have transformed their business in the last few years. Clearly showing they are innovative, agile and successful, with very strong statistics and some impressive ‘firsts’ for the industry. They operate within a no blame culture, using mistakes as a learning platform which is encouraged by their management team. They are rightly proud of their achievements and we thought they were spectacular.”