ViiV Healthcare has come out on top at this year's PM Society Awards, an annual competition designed to recognise creativity, impact and innovation across pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising and communications.
The company knocked last year's highest awarded pharma Teva off of pole position, bringing home four Gold gongs and two Silvers for its Change the Face of HIV campaign, which is focused on raising awareness of the disease among healthcare professionals working in primary care.
In second place, EUSA Pharma was awarded two Golds, a Silver and a Bronze for its work in support of Caphosol, a medical device that lubricates the mucosa of the mouth, tongue and oropharynx to prevent and treat mucositis that may be caused by radiation or high dose chemotherapy.
Other highly awarded companies were Pfizer, Teva, Ascensia Diabetes Care, Sanofi Pasteur and Shield Therapeutics, who all received at least one Gold award plus others in the Silver or Bronze categories.
On the Agency side, Havas Lynx topped the charts with 10 awards, including five Golds for its work across HIV and Dermatology, three Silvers and two Bronze awards. Also faring well: CDM London and Frontera London won three Golds each; Sudler London one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze; and Bedgebury Communications one Gold, one Silver and three Bronze.
Also of note, Ascensia Diabetes Care and CDM London were awarded the inaugural Best in Show award for their Contour Diabetes Solutions campaign, featuring animated clips of patients voicing their experiences with diagnosis and care as characters based on a vinyl record player, Polaroid camera and videotape.
"In selecting this campaign we asked ourselves four questions - Is there a proper idea at the heart of it?, does it answer the brief?, is it beautifully done? and is it something we could all be proud of?", said head judge Dean Woolley of woolley pau gyro. "The work by CDM London for this diabetes campaign really hit the mark on all of these".
Meanwhile, co-chairs Rachel Farrow and Carwyn Jones announced they are handing the reigns over to Shire's Craig Bradley, who becomes the group's first 'pharma' chairman.
Gold Winners 2016
Craft Award for Direct Mail - Sudler London for Pfizer
Craft Award for Sales Aid - Frontera London for EUSA Pharma
Craft Award for Film - Havas Lynx for ViiV Healthcare
Craft Award for Animation - CDM London for Ascensia Diabetes Care
Craft Award for Interactive Communications - Frontera London for Boehringer Ingelheim
Craft Award for Events and Exhibitions - Swordfish Advertising for Vifor Frensenius
Target Award for Direct Mail - Bedgebury Communications for Sanofi Pasteur
Craft Award for Disease Awareness - Havas Lynx
Craft Award for Patient Support - Learner Adams Bones for AbbVie
Primary Care Campaign - Havas Lynx for ViiV Healthcare
Secondary Care Campaign - Frontera London for EUSA Pharma
Target Award for House Promotion - Ten Five Ten for Bexon Clinical Consulting
Target Award for Corporate Communications - Aurora Healthcare Communications or Takeda UK
Craft Award for Advertisement Campaign - Havas Lynx for ViiV Healthcare
Craft Award for Primary Care Ad - CDM London for Johnson & Johnson
Craft Award for Secondary Care A - VCCP Health for Teva
Target Award for Primary Care Ad - Havas Lynx for ViiV Healthcare
Target Award for Secondary Care Ad - CDM London for Shield Therapeutics
