Pfizer asking media to rate PR, will disclose physician payments
The Pfizer media machine continues, with the news that the pharma giant is conducting interviews with 250 members of the media to see how well the PR team is doing.
From BNET Pharma: “The remainder of the survey covers predictable territory: how well does Pfizer perform in terms of access, providing experts, executives, responding to deadlines, and the comprehensiveness of its web site.”
Pfizer also on February 9 that it will publish the names of physicians who are paid for consulting, speaking, or working on clinical trials for the company.
It will all payments exceeding $500 on the company Web site and will “include payments to universities and research sites involved in clinical research, and will cover nonfinancial gifts like meals, travel expenses, textbooks, and anatomical models.”
UPDATE: I just spoke with Ray Kerins, VP of worldwide communications, who noted that this is the second time the company has surveyed journalists. (We mentioned the audit in a Pfizer feature last spring.)
Kerins says that the Pfizer media team has made headway on two points - not returning calls to journalists, and access to executives - since they came up on last year’s survey, adding that the survey is “highly valuable.”
