Pharmaceutical communications ‘targeting emerging markets’

Growing business opportunities in emerging markets are leading many pharmaceutical companies to adopt new corporate communications strategies.

PRWeek has highlighted figures from IMS Health showing that healthcare company spending in countries such as India, China and Europe is set to double by 2016, while a Just Health PR consultation has found that many drugs are now arriving in these markets ahead of the US and Europe.

This means that companies such as AstraZeneca are placing an increased focus on corporate reputation in emerging markets, as well as strategies that meet the specific needs of different countries.

The firm dedicated 47 percent of its global sales and marketing workforce to emerging markets in 2011, up from 16 percent in 2002.

Esra Erkal-Paler, AstraZeneca head of global media relations, added: "We recognise that the 'emerging markets' definition includes a diverse range of countries whose key unifying characteristic is a growing economy, and therefore one size does not fit all."

This comes in the same week that Mark Mallon, regional vice-president for Asia-Pacific and president for China at AstraZeneca, told InPharm that the Asia-Pacific region will be the single largest contributor to global pharmaceutical market growth from now to 2015.