Tagrisso gets the green light

First new medicine to be made available to NHS patients in England with a specific type of lung cancer following NICE’S decision to recommend its use within the new Cancer Drugs Fund

For the launch of a new drug, unless it’s in the ‘blockbuster’ category with the potential to change millions of people’s lives, then attracting significant media coverage can sometimes be difficult.

But that wasn’t the case for the launch of Tagrisso even though the new drug benefits a relatively small number of people. markettiers, our client Edelman, and their client AstraZeneca, all understood the key to broadcast coverage would be preparation, interviewee flexibility and speed in responding to broadcasters’ needs. Everyone responded accordingly.

Thus when Sky News Radio asked markettiers for an embargoed pre-recorded interview with AstraZeneca’s UK & Ireland President at relatively short notice the afternoon before the news was to be released, this vital interview was able to smoothly happen. Vital because Sky distribute national news stories and accompanying soundbites from interviewees to all the UK’s 300+ commercial stations for their bulletins the next day.  Even though monitoring is limited we duly picked up the story & soundbite Sky put out on over 40 commercial radio stations. In reality the story would have run on hundreds of commercial news bulletins.

markettiers also has a very strong relationship with the Press Association. When they asked us for a patient quote for their story, once again through the markettiers-Edelman-AstraZeneca partnership was able to deliver: within the hour a quote from the leading lung cancer charity, The Roy Castle Foundation, was with us.  The PA distributed their copy and not long afterwards the Mail Online and Guardian Online were both prominently running the story, complete with the quote.

Both Edelman and AstraZeneca were delighted with this level of coverage.