Finalist
Care, Consistency, Context and Control: Communicating the results of UK health technology appraisals for Selincro®
Summary of work
Alcohol is a media hot topic, but portrayal of alcohol problems has perpetuated classic stereotypes - binge drinkers and ‘alcoholics’ requiring abstinence programmes - with no clear reporting of the functional ‘silent majority’ of dependent drinkers often unknowingly storing up future health harms.
Selincro® (nalmefene) was the first treatment licensed to help certain alcohol dependent (AD) patients to reduce, rather than abstain from, drinking. Three health technology appraisals (HTA) followed a high impact launch.
In the absence of new data, the challenge was to maintain journalist interest throughout the HTA phase and particularly the NICE review, to ensure visibility and clarity for a distinct patient group not previously isolated in the minds of primary care professionals and the general public. Communication of the decisions would need to stimulate primary care awareness and take-up – an audience largely unfamiliar with the everyday management of mild AD.
A series of carefully crafted and implemented media announcements resulted in high quality and particularly factual media reporting reaching 300+ million. Analysis showed the NICE coverage had the biggest media impact on a single day and in one calendar month of any story about a medicine during 2014. Product sales rose dramatically in the weeks following.
Judges’ comments
Clark Health and Lundbeck did a great job of keeping the narrative with media going, producing really strong analysis and outcomes. This campaign was strong, solid, consistent and very thorough.
