Fast on the heels of the management buyout of PharmaTimes Magazine and Digital in June, the newly-formed company PharmaTimes Media has now acquired PharmaTimes Competitions and Awards.
“This is a significant and exciting acquisition for the new company, and is hugely beneficial for the competitions, which will again be able to build on the reputation and wide industry reach of the magazine and online news channel,” says managing editor Claire Bowie.
“In an industry where there are now a number of awards competitions, the PharmaTimes events stand out in being co-run and judged by independent industry experts from within pharma and healthcare. What also differentiates these competitions is that finalists are judged on the day, not on past performance, making participation not just about winning but a unique learning process.”
There are six PharmaTimes competitions and awards: Clinical Researcher of the Year, Communications Team of the Year, Marketer Of the Year, Medical Science Liaison of the Year, Sales Awards, and US Clinical Researcher of the Year. While the popular format of these competitions will be retained, the new management hopes to bring a number of fresh new ideas to the competitions.
Commenting on the acquisition, Carol Parish, senior director, global head clinical development, skin health, at GSK, and chair of the International Clinical Researcher of the Year competition, says: “I have been involved for the past 10 years and personally feel these changes should strengthen the offering, helping us focus on making it not just a competition, but more of an opportunity to provide learning and development feedback for career development.”
Feedback
Indeed, being able to take away feedback from the competition is “a gift”, says Nick Rodger, strategic solutions director at Bedrock Healthcare Communications, and current chair of the Marketer of the Year competition, who credits this feedback – and the mentoring that is also available – with his winning the competition in 2009.
“When I was with Baxter we entered the team category in 2008. I feel very strongly that it was the feedback we received from that entry that motivated us to try again, and we won the following year. There was no shift in brilliance among the team, but an understanding from the advice we received of how to work together better. Only PharmaTimes’ competitions judge peers against peers – it is a unique opportunity for people to measure their skills against people of their own level.”
Geoff Frew, who founded the PharmaTimes brand and will continue to run the meetings side of the business, says he is delighted the competitions will remain within the PharmaTimes fold: “Over the years we’ve watched these competitions evolve into the phenomenal success they are today and the new management team, with their understanding and knowledge of this business, are ideally placed to take these competitions forward while retaining the integrity robustness and professionalism that has always been central to our ethos.”
Your new contacts for PharmaTimes Competitions and PharmaTimes Media:
Claire Bowie, Managing Editor – claire_bowie@pharmatimes.com
Anneliese Cameron, Business Development Manager – anneliese@pharmatimes.com
Gill Chalk, Business Development Manager – gillc@pharmatimes.com
