Designed to assess and reward the competencies and potential of pharma marketers and aspiring marketers, the prestigious PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition identifies and benchmarks marketing talent within pharma organisations, against the wider industry. The competition, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary is now open for entry and marketers at all levels of their career are invited to enter.

A unique opportunity for individuals and teams to sharpen their skills and showcase their talents, the competition continues to raise standards, drive innovation and put patient outcomes at the centre of healthcare marketing.

Mark Lawson, global senior commercial lead and asset leader at Mundi Pharma and co-chair of the executive steering group (ESG) says: “The competition has always enabled marketers from different pharmaceutical companies to benchmark their talent and to develop their marketing competencies.” He adds that that many of the competition’s winners and finalists are now senior industry leaders. This year the competition marks its 25th anniversary and Mark says the ESG has broadened the commercial scope of the competition with, as always, “some challenging case studies for entrants to compete over.”

Sabina Syed, managing director at Visions4Health and co –chair of the executive steering group says: “25 years is a significant milestone in the history of the competition and the executive steering committee has planned an exciting competition continuing to build on its unrivalled reputation to benchmark the marketing and communication capabilities of our industry.”

For Lundbeck’s Gawain Shirley, the opportunity to learn and develop was what prompted him to take part in the competition last year – and it paid off.  Not only was he awarded the first-ever National Market Access Lead of the Year accolade but, together with his colleagues, scooped the award for Commercial Cross Functional team of the Year too. Gawain says the finals days were challenging but representative of the real world: “They stretch you as an individual and as a team and push you to use all of the various skills and competencies needed to be successful in your day-to-day role.”

Over at Novartis, Jonathan Jones credits winning Aspiring Marketer of the Year 2017 with not only establishing, but also accelerating his career in pharma marketing: “Winning [the award] gave me the confidence to take the next step in my career, which resulted in me securing my first marketing role as a Brand Manager.  I would thoroughly recommend the competition to anyone who is interested in moving into a marketing role,” he says.

Individuals and teams can register their entries or nominations online now at pharmatimes.com/marketer. Entries are screened by the executive steering group and finalists are announced in September.

The Marketer of the Year steering group and judging panel comprises both senior industry leaders and key stakeholders. This esteemed committee of professionals provides a vital role in helping PharmaTimes to design the competition so that its content accurately reflects the latest business thinking and the environment in which marketers are working.

All finalists will be invited to the high-profile awards ceremony, where their success will be celebrated alongside other industry leaders. The ceremony, to be held in November in central London, will coincide with the presentation of PharmaTimes Communications Team of the Year and the all-new Sales Awards. For more information and to enter visit  www.pharmatimes.com/marketer