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Eye On PR

MAYO kicks off Year 2001 with a new feature on its website "Eye On PR" Everything from tricks of the trade to getting on the radar of high-tech editors and industry analysts to making your company newsworthy. Nationally recognized freelance writer
George S. McQuade III reports on the PR industry.

(From L-R) PRSA-LA President Stefan, Stefan I. Pollack vice president & CFO,
The Pollack PR Marketing Group, Panelist John Sterling, managing editor, Genetic
Engineering News (GEM), Larchmont, NY, Doug Obenshain, partner, San Diego Health
Sciences Practice, Ernst & Young. LLP; Leslie Mladnich, staff writer, East Bay Business
Times, San Francisco, Lyn Christenson, vice president of corporate communications,
Applera Corporation (Parent of Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics), and
Tom Stromberg, shareholder, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP.

Is PR Driving The Biotechnology Revolution?

By George S. Mc Quade III

More than 100 people packed into the PRSA-LA’s first ever seminar on the Biotechnology, held March 15, 2001, at the Westin Hotel, LAX, and sponsored by Fisher & Partners, Inc and Business Wire. The panelist were John Sterling, managing editor, Genetic Engineering News (GEM), Larchmont, NY, Doug Obenshain, partner, San Diego Health Sciences Practice, Ernst & Young. LLP; Leslie Mladnich, staff writer, East Bay Business Times, San Francisco, Lyn Christenson, vice president of corporate communications, Applera Corporation (Parent of Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics), Tom Stromberg, shareholder, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP and Creighton W. Lawhead, vice president, Commercial Affairs and Investor Relations, The Immune Response Corporation, Carlsbad, CA.

Pet Peeves of editors who write about biotechnology

John Sterling, senior editor, Genetic Engineering News

“What we want when we receive a news release is a phone number and a contact name,” said John Sterling, senior editor with Genetic Engineering News. “I don’t mind getting phone calls, or sifting through medical journals, but we need names and phone numbers on the stuff. When you write a news release, it would be real helpful to answer this question in the first paragraph ‘why would this journalist be interested?’ or at least in the second paragraph. I literally received four inches of faxes daily. A phone number, name, and website would be helpful.”

Leslie Mladinich, staff writer, East Bay
Business Times

“Nothing makes me more angry than a PR Pro of company that sends me an email, no phone number or name,” said Leslie Mladinich, staff writer, East Bay Business Times. “Who knows who’s getting the it (email). I prefer a phone number and contact name at the top of the news release or papers. I had a PR Pro from Olgivy send me a background article, and it wasn’t even on their client, but it was real helpful. I don’t have time to sift through the journals.” Mladinich covers about 150 biotechnology and medical device companies in Alameda and Contra Cost counties.

“Some PR Pros do a good job, some do not, said Doug Obenshain, audit partner, San Diego Health Practice, Ernst & Young. “I encourage my clients to be forthright with their message. I tell them write the press release and let the media write the story. Be straight and boring.” Obenshain cited Internet companies writing press releases for investors, but the CPA would have a hard time adding up the figures.

Pitching Biotech is challenging, especially when your company is the top story, worldwide, two days in-a-row

Lyn Christenson,v.p. corporate
Communications, Applera Corporation

“It was a meltdown, or like running a political campaign,” said Lyn Christenson, vice president of corporation communications, Applera Corporation. Her 20 years of public relations experiences with corporations and agencies specializing in the life sciences, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology did not prepare her for the biggest media story and challenge of her life the day CNN announced that President Clinton and the Prime Minister Blair were going to make a joint announcement at the White House about Biotechnology. “We were page one news around the world twice, and it was like a tsunami, with the second largest drop of the NASDAQ.”

Lessons learn during media crisis

“We found educating reporters on biotechnology, large and small publications, reporters sold our story to the editor more easily, and they invested more time, because it is an emerging field of science,” explained Christenson.

Tom Stromberg, an attorney, shareholder,
Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP

“PR Pros and companies should establish a track record with reporters early on,” said Tom Stromberg, an attorney, shareholder, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP. “Some companies flood the Business Wire with news releases with extraordinary frequency. Keep your name out there, but keep the media informed. Companies have to obey the law, but there are fewer science stories, and reporters don’t always get it right. You’re better off educating reporters early, so they have the background when you’re ready to make an announcement. It is really more of an art than a science of building those relationships.” Stromberg suggests that when you see significant events in a company you should start those media relationships. “The hardest thing to do is review press releases. Yesterday one of my clients was misquoted, and now we have to go back to the investors. My best advice is to be careful, straight forward and accurate.”

“We had a patent issue, even though we’ve been public for 14 years,” said Creighton W. Lawhead with The Immune Response Corporation. "When we had an event, such as animal clinic we put out a press release.” Lawhead said the investors have shifted from 75 percent institution 25 percent retail, to 75 percent retail and 25 percent institution. “When you have 900 difference shareholders in retail, the Internet and those damn Yahoo Internet Chat rooms, you have a set of different expectations. I received a call from an investor who said, “I just bought 10,000 shares, and your company stock has shot up like a rocket, what the hell does your company do?”

The Biotechnology Revolution is "hope and not hype"

said Doug Obenshain, audit partner, San Diego
health Sciences Practice, Ernst & Young LLP

“We believe biotech is the industry of this century,” said Doug Obenshain, audit partner, San Diego health Sciences Practice, Ernst & Young LLP. “It has gone way beyond simple drug development to a science that will change the way we do a great many things from industrial chemicals, to computing, and to agriculture.”Obenshain specializes in providing accounting, auditing and business advisory services primarily to companies in the life sciences industry, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. “I think the biotech industry started in San Francisco with Genentech, the first company founded to study antibodies, and that has always been the most or second most prominent of the biotech companies in the world. Amgen, which was founded several years after Genentech is located in Thousand Oaks, CA., has become extraordinarily successful also approaching a market cap of many of the big companies. There are a lot more technology companies today, than 10 years ago, and many more are successful. ”

Biotech has been around for a long time

Creighton W. Lawhead The Immune Response Corporation

”Quite a bit of the biotechnology in San Diego and San Francisco is an offshoot of the hybertech days, which an up and coming biotechnology company early on with a the focus on diagnostics,” said Creighton W. Lawhead, vice president of Commercial Affairs and Investor Relations, The Immune Response Corporation. “Several of the former ‘hypbertechers’ became presidents and CEO’s out here.” Lawhead has 27 years’ experience in global sales, marketing, business development and investor relations for the healthcare industry.” Lawhead is used to dealing with investors and the media over issues of clinical testing of a vaccine for Aids to Arthritis. “We not trying to find a cure, were trying to kill these diseases,” he said.

What’s all the hype about in Los Angeles and New York about biotech?

Panelist John Sterling, managing editor, Genetic Engineering News (GEM), Larchmont, NY, Doug Obenshain, partner, San Diego Health Sciences Practice, Ernst & Young. LLP; Leslie Mladnich, staff writer, East Bay Business Times, San Francisco, Lyn Christenson, vice president of corporate communications, Applera Corporation (Parent of Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics), Tom Stromberg, shareholder, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, LLP,

“I don’t get, and that’s why I came to this conference,” said John Sterling, managing editor, Genetic Engineering News (GEM). Sterling is one of the most senior members of the weekly, was hired three years after the weekly’s publication’s inception in 1981, in Larchmont, NY. Before his post at GEM, he carried out graduate-level research on primate and human evolution at Hunter College in New York. “I curious to know why Los Angeles and New York City, which both have their own set of problems, a great infrastructure, but can not seem to get a big Biotech industry. Study after study in biotechnology finds that most people who work for these companies are interested in the quality of life. The beaches and mountains are beautiful here. So I’m not quite sure why LA hasn’t tracked San Diego or San Francisco.” Apparently Sterling is not alone in hisinquiry, as the seminar attracted technology writers from the Boston Globe, Forbes Magazine, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

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If you have an marketing communications or PR event or a trend that others should read about please send us an email. Please send the event notice two weeks in advance. If you got a PR, marcom or geek question for non-geeks send us your question, we'll get you an answer with our endless resources! gmcquade@MayoCommunications.com

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