Weber Shandwick hires new pharma comms head

London-based Weber Shandwick has added Dominique Jaquest to its UK health team.

As head of pharmaceutical communications, Jaquest will be responsible for driving the growth of the agency's pharma client portfolio.

Reporting to group managing director, Lucie Harper, Jaquest joins the agency following nine years with Chandler Chicco Agency (CCA), where she was a senior client lead and member of the London leadership team. During this time her clients included Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca (AZ) and Novartis.

Before CCA, Jaquest gained experience in-house, working as brand communications manager for AZ, where she handled, among other marketed and commercial brands, the heartburn treatment Nexium. In addition, she also spent time as a global communications manager at GSK.

"This is a new and significant role within the UK Health team borne out of the fantastic growth we've achieved over the last few years," said Harper.

"We want to ensure the growth in our core pharmaceutical business continues and I'm delighted that Dominique has taken up this challenge.

"Her tremendous experience and expertise will hugely benefit our clients and our team and ensure Weber Shandwick retains a leading position in the marketplace."

Commenting on her new position, Jaquest said: “I'm delighted to be joining Weber Shandwick's UK health team.

"The pharmaceutical industry continues to face a plethora of tough challenges in communicating the benefits of its medicines to an ever-increasing number of stakeholders. So it's great to be joining a team that can offer truly integrated solutions to meet those challenges and engage with audiences."