PR Taking Forward European Challenges

Despite country differences, the challenges facing the pharmaceuticalindustry and health care public relations consultancies today are similar across Europe, and are converging quickly, according to one of the region's leading health care public relations companies.

"As the pharmaceutical industry sees increased mergers, acquisitions and alliances, communication and cooperation between countries must be stronger in order to keep up with this trend," according to Howard Godman, director of health care, Europe, at the UK-based Manning, Selvage & Lee, which ranks itself as the world's seventh-largest PR firm.

Addressing an MS&L network seminar given in London, UK, in February, Mr Godman said: "the MS&L network already has a very strong presence at a national level, but this meeting clearly demonstrates the importance of working across national and international boundaries to provide a truly integrated direction to communications strategies."