Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy

What is Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy?

Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy (used interchangeably in this article) organizations partner with external patient advocacy organizations, support initiatives to highlight the patient voice, and work with legislative entities to share the company and patient views.

While there are usually teams that support specific therapeutic areas, these teams are sometimes restricted to unbranded communications only, especially in the United States. The goal is really to increase awareness of the disease state, the patient burden, and general under-treatment rather than specifically promoting one treatment over another.

Public affairs is usually the key internal partner when it comes to maintaining and managing the relationship with advocacy organizations (such as the American Heart Association or American Society of Clinical Oncology). They will often work with these external groups on various initiatives which may include education for members, programs at conferences, or potentially research collaborations (other groups like Medical may get pulled in as relevant).