Boosting our nation's woeful science IQ is the challenge Bristol-Myers Squibb has set for itself with RxeSEARCH, an 11-lesson high-school course that engages students in the real-world application of science for new and better medicines. This R&D 101 covers everything from the social impact of disease to the marketing of drugs, with emphasis on the screening and targeting of molecules to find the "magic bullet." Classroom activities range across experimenting in the lab, designing clinical trials, debating medical ethics, and even playing a board game about the life cycle of a drug, where a roll of the dice can mean the difference between go and no-go--and millions of dollars. Different approaches to problem-solving and decision-making are explored as the drug-development process unfolds.

RxeSEARCH was the brainchild of BMS's chief communications officer, Robert Zito, according to Becky Taylor, senior director of corporate and business communications, who says that Zito was a big booster of a similar game to teach kids about investing money while he was at the New York Stock Exchange. "When he came to BMS, he developed a similar initiative as an effective, entertaining way to teach the next generation about science as it is applied to the research and development of medicine."

The New Jersey commissioner of education, Lucille Davy, was quick to sign on to the project, lauding it as a prime example of both applied and integrated instruction, combining science with math, English, history, and other subjects. The National Science Resources Center (NSRC), an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences, was enlisted to develop the curriculum with multidisciplinary input from experts. 

Officials shared the drug giant's vision of the program as a means to increase American students' scientific proficiency, which has trailed that of most of the rest of developed world for two decades. One of NSRC's first forays into secondary education, it also aims to generate enthusiasm for the high-stakes practice of drugmaking--and for Big Pharma as a career choice. 

RxeSEARCH was pilot-tested in high schools in New York City and across the Pharma Belt of New Jersey. Fully three-quarters of the top-15 global drug firms are headquartered in the Garden State, and they employ more than 65,000 residents and contribute more than $20 billion to the state economy. Following two years of fine-tuning and a summer training institute for 59 local teachers, RxeSEARCH is ready for a local rollout this semester under the aegis of PhRMA and the Museum of Contemporary Science, in Trenton. A BMS-funded, All Web Caf?designed Web site?which would allow teachers to download the 11-lesson curriculum, board-game teaching points, and additional materials--is also in the works. 

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Can BMS make Johnnie and Janie crazy about chemistry?and curing AIDS and cancer?

Big Pharma Goes Back to School

In what could well be a sign of things to come in pharma marketing, one of the industry's top agencies has launched a new firm that focuses specifically on "green" communications. The new firm is Earthborn, a communications agency within CommonHealth.

And its mission, according to CommonHealth President and CEO Matt Giegerich, is "to help pharma companies understand how they can connect their corporation, portfolio, or brand to an environmental issue that is meaningful and then translate that into messaging that drives consumer choice and preference." 

Earthborn plans to help (and push) pharma companies to establish educational programs and forge connections with causes. 

"We know that there is a very clear connection between the environment and individual health," Giegerich says. "Earth care, in a way, is healthcare. We are focused on the healthcare marketplace in terms of client companies, but the idea of Earthborn isn't related just to pharma companies--it's for any brand or portfolio that wants to add an environmental plank to its platform."

For example, a company that is involved in the asthma or allergy category can develop community programs that show the link between the decay of the environment and the rising incidents of allergy and asthma. Earthborn will help pharma companies develop initiatives, educational materials, and support programs that can help people understand the link between the environment and allergies, and help them change that environment on an individual and community level. 

"Funding those initiatives at the corporate level is a way to link the company to an environmental concern and add the reality of a brand worth choosing, because it is doing something meaningful to address the problem that the drug treats," Giegerich says. "Our idea is to take the corporate social responsibilities that are often mentioned in annual reports and translate those initiatives into individual brand marketing efforts."

Earthborn is also promoting a strategy for discarding unused medical products. Most times, these products sit in consumers' cabinets and are frequently thrown in the garbage or flushed down the toilet. That puts them in areas where children can find them or creates problems in the water supply.  "This is an opportunity for a pharma company to create a health information program with awareness campaigns or disposal efforts," Giegerich says.

New marketing agency helps pharma companies clean up their act

Pharmaceutical Executive-08-29-2007

Big Pharma Goes Back to School

Painting Pharma Green