Wendy Lund, GCI Health’s CEO, served as conference co-chair, the first agency person to ever serve in this capacity, for the ExL Pharma Public Relations & Communications Summit. The Summit was hosted at Celgene Corporation’s headquarters in Summit, New Jersey July 18 and 19. This Summit is a huge moment for GCI Health and offers the agency great exposure to communicators at many of the top companies in the biopharmaceutical industry.
As a marquee partner for the sixth year in a row, GCI Health played a major role in developing the theme of this year’s Summit, “Providing a Clear Path Forward During Chaotic Times,” including working closely with the ExL advisory panel to map out the presentations. GCI Health also led a robust discussion around media engagement in today’s environment that featured an award-winning panel of Susan Wagner, Senior Coordinating Medical Unit Producer at NBC News, Arlene Weintraub, national healthcare and pharmaceutical business reporter, Marie Rosenthal, national healthcare trade editor and reporter, and Becky Lauer, executive vice president, GCI Health’s director of media. Jill Dosik, GCI Health’s Global President, Scientific Communications and Message Impact, moderated the session.
Feedback from the Summit attendees has been excellent, and we are already discussing with ExL Pharma potential themes for next year’s Summit.
GCI Health forged a partnership with Hearst women’s title Redbook and online health information source HealthyWomen.org. The HealthiHER Project is an attempt to better understand the health habits of women 30-60 years of age. As a first step in the project, there will be a survey of women in that demographic, addressing their healthcare decisions and needs. The goal of the research is to give these women the information and inspiration they need to make healthier choices. “We’re excited to be working with Redbook and HealthyWomen to uncover some key insights that will help us better communicate with this important population,” said GCI Health CEO Wendy Lund.