Recently, we touched upon Talecris Biotherapeutics' "Up Close and Personal" day last August, in which the company's drug development and manufacturing experts became "good will" ambassadors for the company (and by association, the drug industry). They shared projects and plans, and a description of the work they do, all along the value chain, from plasma collection to product distribution, with 70 patients. Patients, meanwhile, shared their experiences before and after the therapies were available.
I realize that many pharma companies may have programs where they invite some patients to visit their facilities, but wonder how many they invite at a time.
It seems to me that making such events larger, regular, and part of an official public outreach strategy, would yield dividends for any company and the industry.
I understand fears about security, lack of resources and the planning required. Public affairs manager Lacy McMahon talked about the process at Talecris, and the interdisciplinary teamwork involved in a recent interview.
She also shared verbatim post-event comments from both staff and patient-guests, which suggest a significant "return on investment" in both tangible and non-tangible ways, and shared some moving patient testimonials which stand as evidence of the importance of drug manufacturing and should inspire anyone in this field.
Lacy's interview and these videos form the basis of a 12-minute documentary video now on our site. (It's rough, but then this is the YouTube era).
Its purpose is to ask the question: Why should manufacturing professionals be "hidden away," when they are solving some of the major challenges facing the industry and when they could be the key to solving its public opinion problem, too?
-AMS
