The PMEAs returned for the 22nd year, with attendees celebrating the very best achievements in pharmaceutical marketing excellence.

The annual awards once again received a high number of entries from companies across the pharmaceutical sector, each contending for the coveted awards. The evening began with an opening speech from the night’s host, breakfast TV and sports presenter, Mike Bushell.

Congratulating all of the participants of this year’s awards, Bushell also recognised the enormous pressures healthcare systems and the pharmaceutical industry have been under for the last three years. He then entertained the audience with a game of ‘sport or spoof’ before the presentations.

Chair of the judges for PMEA 2022, Dr Paul Stuart-Kregor, followed with remarks about the outstanding level of this year’s entries. He thanked the judges and noted the high standard of discussion and thorough consideration that went into the final outcomes for each category.

This year, as with previous years, the categories included in the PMEAs were carefully reviewed to reflect the ever-changing medical and pharmaceutical landscapes.
Among the 16 categories featured, two new categories were added: Excellence in Public Health and Excellence in Organisational Transformation.

‘The Invisible Opponent’, created by Campaign Against Living Miserably and Seven Stones Collective won the award for Excellence in Public Health, while the award for Excellence in Organisational Transformation went to the team from Whipps Cross and Newham University Hospital for their entry titled ‘Developing and Centralising a Nurse-Led Transperineal Biopsy Service Under Local Anaesthetic’.

There was a double win for L’Institut Servier and its supporter MedScape Medical Affairs, with the team receiving the second award of the night for Excellence in Healthcare Professional Education and Support Programmes with its entry, ‘Transatlantic Exchanges: Driving Therapeutic Innovation in Oncology for the Benefit of Patients’.

The group also won the category for Excellence in Innovation with its patient-centric submission, ‘Transatlantic Exchanges in Immuno-Oncology: Making Breakthroughs in Clinical Oncology’. MedScape posted on Twitter to share its success, celebrating ‘teamwork at its finest’.

Teamwork was also recognised in this year’s Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships category, with the teams from Gilead Sciences and 90Ten winning for their campaign, ‘Find Your Four To Live Well with HIV’.

For an entry that the judges dubbed ‘a beautifully simple solution to a pressing need’ underpinned by a ‘bold and imaginative’ approach, Merck KGaA and Bedrock Healthcare Communications won the Agility Award in Pharma Market Excellence with their submission, ‘Accelerated Virtual Consensus Programme: Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19 Vaccination’.

The award for PMEA Support Agency of the Year was won by CMC Affinity, with the judges recognising the group’s constant strategic focus driven by strong growth and evidence, alongside excellent client dashboard metrics.

The winner of the Judge’s Special Award for 2022 was Novartis Gene Therapies, with an entry that the judges said ‘paved a new way’ and ‘created a blueprint for other high price medications’, offering hope and support to families who had otherwise not been able to access other available treatment options.

As the ceremony came to a close, all eyes were on which company would receive the Lucid Group Award for Company of the Year, which was won by Takeda last year.

The 2022 shortlist was between Novartis Gene Therapies and Roche, with both teams offering well-considered, innovative and agile contributions. However, taking the top spot as winner for PMEA 2022 was Roche, with the judges noting the team’s ‘openness, honesty and innovation’ coupled with a ‘clear impact on results’, made possible by impressive agility.

An evening of celebration followed, with networking and dancing continuing into the early hours of the morning, drawing another successful PMEA awards night to a close.

See the full results at www.pmlive.com/awards.