Excessive-profile, sit-down interviews with Merck & Co.’s CEO probably wouldn’t have occurred a couple of years in the past. However in March, Robert Davis appeared on the CNBC present “Mad Cash” to debate the corporate’s newest FDA approval with host Jim Cramer. The drug, Winrevair, is a first-in-class remedy — and potential blockbuster — that one professional referred to as a “paradigm shift” for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The approval additionally showcased the knowledge of Merck’s $11.5 billion 2021 Acceleron acquisition, which Winrevair was a part of.
Though speaking up an enormous win is sensible, Massive Pharma CEOs don’t typically face the general public to tout a brand new approval.
“He may need been nice by no means occurring Cramer’s present, fairly truthfully,” mentioned Cristal Downing, Merck’s govt vp, and chief communications and public affairs officer. “I needed to actually assist him perceive and make the case — the enterprise case, fairly frankly — for why it was vital for him, as a frontrunner and the important thing spokesperson for the corporate, to be sharing info in an everyday, well timed, related method.”
Since becoming a member of Merck in 2021, Downing has been on the heart of an effort to revamp — and in some methods revolutionize — communications for the corporate, bucking pharma’s zipped-lip establishment and ushering in a “new period” of openness, transparency and “overt communication.”
“It was a brand new muscle that I had to assist the corporate construct, that I had to assist the corporate stretch and proceed to make use of,” she mentioned.
Earlier than Downing’s arrival from J&J, the place she had most lately labored as vp of communications and public affairs for medical units, Merck’s PR method was like most main pharma firms.
“They had been very quiet and really personal, very involved about speaking too quickly, an excessive amount of, too early. Did not wish to share proprietary info,” she mentioned. “They had been head down, targeted on the science, targeted on innovation, and actually believed that it will be fairly apparent to all of their exterior stakeholders what they had been doing, how they had been doing it, once they had been doing it.”
After all, that’s not all the time the case, particularly for Massive Pharma, which suffers from a unfavourable public notion, regardless of making life-saving medicines.
“We’re in a day and age the place we proceed to be scrutinized, criticized and typically vilified,” Downing mentioned.
Altering the narrative
Even after growing and deploying COVID-19 vaccines at lightning pace, it didn’t take lengthy for the tide of public opinion to shift again to the unfavourable discourse surrounding excessive drug prices and challenges with medicine entry.
But when that’s the one narrative, it can turn out to be the dominant one. That’s why Downing and her workforce makes use of what she calls a “CARE” mannequin to inform a special story and talk that Merck is “actually serving to to avoid wasting and enhance lives and advance international well being.”
CARE stands for “join” with the viewers; “align” their message; “reinforce” and repeat the corporate’s optimistic influence; and “have interaction” with clear, cohesive and compelling real-world tales.
“It was a brand new muscle that I had to assist the corporate construct, that I had to assist the corporate stretch and proceed to make use of.”
Cristal Downing
Chief communications and public affairs officer, EVP, Merck & Co.
“Our purpose is to really take what we’re doing and break it down into these little chunks for the stakeholder viewers to grasp,” she mentioned. “We hold telling them what we’ve performed, why we do it, how we do it, the optimistic influence, and we showcase the outcomes.”
Downing has different guideposts for shaping the corporate’s communication technique, too, comparable to the necessity to “shield, defend and elevate” Merck’s repute, in addition to staying targeted on the corporate’s “imaginative and prescient, values and vibe.”
With Downing’s management, Merck has turn out to be extra open about sharing excellent news once they have an replace to be happy with, like Davis’s full courtroom press after the Winrevair approval.
She advised the CEO, “You are occurring CNBC, you’re occurring Bloomberg. We’re really going to do a launch. We will do some embargoes,” she mentioned. “And these had been all issues the corporate had not traditionally been doing.”
However it additionally means talking up when the corporate must defend itself and studying to “get comfy with driving the wave of a brand new cycle.”
Downing pointed to Merck being the primary firm to file go well with towards the federal government to battle the Inflation Discount Act’s drug value negotiation program. It was clear to Downing the corporate would obtain some unfavourable protection on such a “lightning rod” difficulty, however she and her communications workforce helped information Merck’s response and be certain that “the entire reporters and media are knowledgeable and perceive our standpoint, as a result of that’s what we wish.”
“If there’s going to be protection, we wish it to be correct,” Downing mentioned.
It’s troublesome to measure the outcomes of Merck’s communications technique up to now. As Downing famous, company affairs is “not a price heart.”
“It could not have a P&L and it might not have income targets, however it’s, certainly, a very strategic value-driver for each the enterprise and stakeholders,” she mentioned.
As a substitute, belief, consciousness and understanding are all vital measures of success, and Downing believes that clear, open communication can drive that for pharma. She additionally believes it’s working for Merck.
“Judging from the entire lists we have been on, from essentially the most sustainable [pharma] firm, to essentially the most admired firm, to essentially the most simply firm, our stakeholder group is listening to what we’re sharing in a optimistic method,” she mentioned.
