Edelman and Weber Shandwick to lead consumer health PR for GlaxoSmithKline

Edelman and Weber Shandwick have been handed new consumer health PR briefs by GlaxoSmithKline, which is reorganising its comms strategy in this field.

The two agencies have been selected as GlaxoSmithKline's lead PR partners within a new-look global marketing roster for its consumer healthcare business, which consists of a total of nine agencies, reports PRWeek.

Edelman will oversee the oral health, pain relief, respiratory and nutrition/digestive health categories on a global basis, while the skin health category will be handled by Weber Shandwick. However, this may vary on a country-by-country basis.

Other agencies that GlaxoSmithKline is working with include Grey, Saatchi and Saatchi, Havas, WPP Digital, McCann Health, Ogilvy Commonhealth and Geometry.

Sarah Hodson, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health's global lead for comms and content, said: "One objective of the agency review is to ensure we are driving consumer-first marketing to deliver the right message through the right channel at the right time effectively across the marketing mix."

Consumer healthcare accounts for one-quarter of GlaxoSmithKline's turnover and is set to become more important, following the recent formation of a joint venture with Novartis in the sector.