Creating significant media and web awareness of Nitec Pharma

Nitec Pharma is a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of optimised medicines for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Mannheim, Germany, the Company is developing Lodotra™, a night time release formulation of prednisone, to address morning symptoms such as morning stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Nitec had been spun out from Merck KGaA in 2004 with minimal publicity and had maintained a low profile over the ensuing 18 months, while the lead product progressed through Phase III trials. There had been no press releases in that time and the small website only contained basic information. This was a deliberate strategy, as Nitec intended to wait until their approach had been validated before raising their profile.

Our task

• Raise profile of the Company among financial, partnering and peer communities
• Use announcement of Phase III results to position the Company as a successful operation with its first product poised to enter the market.

Our methods

• Create website that reflects messaging of the Company (www.nitecpharma.com), within that an online press room as resource for media containing factsheets, images etc. Time launch of website to coincide with announcement of the Lodotra™ Phase III results
• Use detailed strategy of embargoed advances and strong media follow up to ensure widest possible coverage of Phase III results
• Highlight forthcoming Skyepharma results as means of "piggybacking" the Nitec news

Results

• Coverage of Lodotra results picked up by BioWorld International, BioCentury, Dow Jones Venturewire and R&D Focus/Drug News
• Secondary coverage achieved through Skyepharma results with coverage featuring Lodotra results in: the Financial Times, Independent, Reuters, Sharecast, Citywire, AP and AFX
• Press outreach resulted in 153 visits to website with many downloading materials

Client Endorsement

Jochen Mattis of Nitec Pharma's Head of Sales and Marketing commented, "Northbank was quick to understand our particular needs and the details of our technology and offering. From there we were able to work well together to get the results we were all looking for."

September 2006

To discuss our capability in this area please contact:
Dr Douglas Pretsell, Account Director
+00 49 (0)89 57 00 18 06
d.pretsell[at]northbankcommunications.com

Credits
This project was implemented by Dr Douglas Pretsell,
Janina Schaper and Dr Robert Mayer
Design by Chris Fisher

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