The new PMEA category for 2020, the Agility Award in Pharma Market Excellence, was scooped up by Accord Healthcare at the virtual ceremony held last week.
The Agility Award in Pharma Market Excellence, a new category for 2020, recognises pharma brand teams that have successfully changed their strategic and operational approach due to the global COVID-19 pandemic to continue to supply, support and engage with healthcare professionals and patients.
Accord’s initiative recognised that a vast number of healthcare providers, intensive care units (ICU) and patients were relying on the company to provide life-saving medicines at a time of desperate need.
In response, the Accord team developed an in-house epidemiological demand model, which was subsequently used across the industry to quantify the likely surge in ICU medicines need.
Using this knowledge, Accord made the swift decision to export raw chemicals from Asia just hours before export bans were implemented. These early actions meant that Accord was able to meet the growing demand for critical medicines, in addition to donating millions of tablets to trials.
Paul Tredwell, VP Specialist Brands, Accord Healthcare said: “We are delighted to accept this award on behalf of the whole team at Accord. Our proactive and collaborative approach with our global partners, suppliers and our employees is what allowed us to really respond to the pandemic with agility and efficiency.”
“A huge shout-out to the creative talents of Swordfish Advertising, who pulled our efforts together to effectively showcase this award and, again, thank you to Alexa Forbes Consulting for supporting us with this award submission. A truly collaborative effort,” he added.
The PMEA judges commented: “Accord’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and their quick thinking was extremely forward thinking. The challenges were well documented and their plan was executed impressively, with an impressive scale-up which resulted in extra doses of medicines [being obtained] before export bans came into place. This pre-emptive thinking was bold and worthwhile.”
The 20th annual PMEAs took place virtually for the first time this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing restrictions.
The turnout was impressive, with over 1,000 views of the livestream and over 150 social media posts on the social wall.
For a full overview of the PMEA 2020 winners, go to https://bit.ly/3mwccYh
A special 2020 PMEA brochure detailing all of the results is also available for download at http://www.pmlive.com/pmea2020/pmearesults.pdf
And if you missed the exciting virtual awards ceremony, head to www.pmlive.com/pmea2020