PRIME Awards 2021 winners announced

Marketing & Strategy: The 17th annual PRIME Awards were celebrated by the industry, together and in-person on Thursday the 25th November and saw the best and brightest healthcare communications work recognised in the pharmaceutical and life science industry.

Hard work, creativity and innovation paid off for a record number of company finalists who walked the red carpet on Thursday night at Sydney’s Four Seasons’ Hotel.

Hosted by the talented comedian Cal Wilson, the evening kicked off in great form, shortly followed by an opening address by Elizabeth de Somer, CEO of Medicines Australia, on progress in the pharmaceutical industry. Health Industry Hub is the proud media partner of PRIME Awards 2021 and had the pleasure of interviewing two of the winners; Sanofi and AstraZeneca.

Full list of winners

Award: Sustained Excellence
Winner: Making lung cancer a fair fight: A four-year communications, education, and advocacy program – Lung Foundation Australia, AstraZeneca & LIFE Agency (an Ogilvy PR company)

Judges’ Comments: “Incredible and dedicated focus with highly impressive demonstration of continued evolution and success with genuine change in the lives of lung cancer patients.”

Highly commended (HC): Women with MS – Biogen & Orchard

Award: Best Public Health Initiative
Winner: Share Your Secret – Hearing Australia, WE Communications and The Station Agency

Judges’ Comments: “High level of focus and impact resulting in more people
hearing better and particularly liked the “my secret” concept for the ads.”

HC: Reassess Your MS – Novartis, McCann Health & Red Havas

Award: Excellence in Patient or Customer Support
Winner: MSGo – Novartis Australia & RxMx

Judges’ Comments: “A great initiative, well met by a complex product. Great for both HCP utilisation and patient care and access.”

Award: Excellence in Education
Winner: Virtual Cancer Pain Management Master Class (cPMMC) – Mundipharma and Scius Healthcare Solutions

Judges’ Comments: “Great education programme with a clear focus on freeing up specialist time and providing GPs with confidence and patients gaining from this. Fantastic return rate and consideration of restrictions of face-to-face learning due to Covid 19.”

Award: Corporate Social Responsibility Award
HC: Promoting the community benefits of a commitment to science – GSK Australia and Palin Communications

Judges’ Comments: In a challenging category, the judges wanted to recognise this important program as a Highly Commended due to its important and tangible impact on its industry.

Award: Creativity in Communication – Consumer
Winner: My Boobs, My Business – Johnson & Johnson Medical and RxMx CREATE

Judges’ Comments: “This campaign really challenged stereotypes around the topic of breast augmentation and interestingly and successfully utilised different strategies for different life-stages, recognising changing needs and aspirations. Courageous and powerful.”

Award: Creativity in Communication – HCP
Winner: Mindchangers – Biogen and Ward6

Judges’ Comments: “Addressed all the needs of the brief and delivered content in a way health care professionals prefer – highlighting the importance of interesting educational information from peers. Stands out without shouting out.”

Award: Best Use of Data or Insights
Winner: Dupixent Atopic Dermatitis Virtual Assistant Prescribing Tool – Sanofi Specialty Care & Alfie (Orchard Group) – see interview with Sanofi

Judges’ Comments: “Impactful campaign with effective use of qualitative
interviews. They truly understood via market research that the goal wasn’t about changing minds but changing behaviours.”

Award: Marketing Innovation Award
Winner: Merz Australia, Et Al Communications and Antidote Marketing

Judges’ Comments: “Loved the creativity of this campaign. It had clear objectives, well defined and delivered. A great example of true innovation.”

HC: Tecfidera Vlogcalls – Biogen & Orchard

Award: Launch of the Year
Winner: Dupixent Atopic Dermatitis Launch Campaign – Sanofi Specialty Care & Alfie (Orchard Group) – see interview with Sanofi

Judges’ Comments: “The judges praised this strong entry for being well thought out and comprehensive both pre-launch and launch. The campaign clearly understood the challenges to be addressed to make this a success.”

HC: Ozempic launch – Novo Nordisk and Ogilvy Health

Award: Marketing Campaign of the Year
Winner: Dupixent Atopic Dermatitis Launch Campaign – Sanofi Specialty Care & Alfie (Orchard Group) – see interview with Sanofi

Judges’ Comments: “What marketing is all about – insight-based and compelling execution. A well rounded case of a fantastic launch.”

HC: Stay Treated Stay Safe – Amgen Australia and ElevenCom, Slingshot,
Evidencia, Decision Designs

Award: Sales Representative of the Year – Primary Care
Winner: Ashleigh Hams – Amgen Australia

Judges’ Comments: “Exceptional ethical unobtrusive manner, all the way providing valuable information on new approaches or guidelines.”

HC: Sharnie Stewart-Hendra – Amgen Australia

Award: Sales Representative of the Year – Specialty Care
Winner: Belinda Summerville – Biogen

Judges’ Comments: “Exceptional representative in all respects. Glowing
recommendations from the medical community.”

Award: NGO of the Year
Winner: MS Australia

Judges’ Comments: “Displayed incredible work and impactful development towards a cure whilst providing support to patients and drastically raising awareness of the disease.”

HC: Ovarian Cancer Australia

Award: Medical Science Liaison of the Year
Winner: Bernd Merkel – Biogen

Judges’ Comments: “Strong individual efforts and initiatives. Met and exceeded all expectations of an MSL, including excellent testimonials.”

HC: Elena Petrova – Biogen

Award: GPs’ Choice: Pharmaceutical Company of the Year 2021
Winners: AstraZeneca and Pfizer

GP Comments: GPs who nominated AstraZeneca praised the company for their effort in providing the world with a COVID-19 vaccination with no profit, and for their diabetes medications. See interview with AstraZeneca

GPs who nominated Pfizer recognised their rapid development of COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA technology and thanked them for providing the best trained reps to teach GPs to improve patient outcomes.

Award: Pharmacists’ Choice: Pharmaceutical Company of the Year 2021
Winner: MedAdvisor

Pharmacists Comments: Pharmacists who nominated MedAdvisor praised them for being highly innovative with outstanding care of patients and excellence support programs.