Main Subject - Business

Your company is about to launch a new product or service that will raise the achievement bar in your industry. You want to make sure that every customer for your innovative offering hears the buzz, and acts on it by buying it – in droves. Yo

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

u write a press release announcing your exciting news, and fire it off to Business Wire, PR Web, several industry magazines, your local paper’s business editor, and the newsrooms of local broadcasters. You post it, with a big headline, on you

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

r company’s website. You sit back, and wait for the world to beat a path to your door.

Some time later, you notice that your door is still on its hinges. Your hoped-for media response was underwhelming. In fact, it was non-existent. You s

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

w the headline on the Business Wire page. You know it was near the top for several hours on PR Web. But no industry writers called, and your press release wasn’t even run in your local paper’s business pages. Why not? Where did you go wron

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

g?

In your business, you’ve no doubt discovered that relationships are what make customers out of prospects. The same principle is in play with media relations – it’s not what you know (or how well you write your press release), it’s who you

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

know. And how they feel about you and your company.

When you were developing your business plan, you put an advertising budget in under marketing, didn’t you? Here’s another question: What’s the best advertising in the world?

Answer:

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

>free publicity.

I can hear you – you’re saying...”OK, Casey, but how do I get free publicity?”

You develop relationships with reporters who cover your industry, that’s how.

Look at your local daily newspaper, and local TV news. Pick

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

p the last copy of your industry’s trade magazine. What stories have they run in the last year about people, companies or events in your business sector? Who reported the story? Print media needs to fill the news holes in their pages – the

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

news hole is the part of the page that isn’t paid advertising – and television news needs to have something to report between commercials. Reporters will welcome a heads-up about news on their beats that they don’t have to go out and dig up o

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

their own.

The approach here should NOT be to call or email the reporter and tell them all about your company. You want to be a source, but not a source of annoyance. The best way to open a dialog with a reporter is to offer yourself as an

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

expert on your business sector – for example, if the reporter’s beat is real estate and development, and you’re a Realtor with a lot of experience in commercial development, you’d be a great source for that reporter.

Make contact with the re

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

porter after you’ve read or watched some of her or his recent pieces. Start a conversation – email is ideal here – with some of your observations about the piece, and about where your industry is headed. Keep it short, not a dissertation. I

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

there’s an industry event coming up in town, ask the reporter if they’re planning on attending. If they are, make a point of seeking that reporter out and introducing yourself. Start a relationship, just as you would with a prospective cust

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

omer. A caveat – be aware that journalists have ethical standards dictated by their industry and their employers. Gifts, even a free lunch, have to be reported, and in most cases refused. What you need to offer is information, good

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

information, not bribery.

Once you’ve established a relationship with a reporter, value it. Offer them stories, not self-serving fluff – the relationship will only pay off if it’s win/win, just like every other business relationship. Is wha

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

t you have newsworthy? Is a new branch office for your company news: is it offering employment in an economically disadvantaged area, or is it just another suite of offices in an upscale office park? There has to be a news “hook”, something

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

that makes your story more than just your story.

Harking back to the scenario I drew at the top of the article, if you have a fresh solution or product that you believe will have the world beating a path to your door, the way to tell

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

the world certainly involves writing a great press release. You’ll get a lot more mileage out of that release if you send it to reporters who know you, who regard you as an expert, and who will tell your story to their readers – your mar

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

et – who will then beat a path to your door.

Becoming an expert is what you did on the path to starting your business. Being recognized as an expert by the media will give you visibility worth thousands, even millions, of advertising do

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

llars that you don’t have to spend.

Does this give you a new view of reading the morning paper, watching local news, reading a trade journal? Are you itching to make a list of reporters who cover your industry? Great – now go do it!

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Main Subject - Media Relations - It's All About Relationships

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