International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations

The Challenge

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations (IFPMA) comprises 60-plus members of regional and national associations representing research-based pharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers of prescription medicines.

When the IFPMA came to APCO, it faced daunting challenges. The group had recently emerged from a bruising legal battle in South Africa over generic drugs – an issue that captured the media spotlight and led to highly emotional criticism of the industry. The debate over generics merged with the equally emotional issues of globalization and the power of multinationals to bring the industry's reputation under nearly constant attack. At the same time, the WTO was preparing for its Ministerial Conference in Doha and a number of countries were arguing that rules on intellectual property rights should be relaxed to allow countries to deal with public health crises. The pharmaceutical industry faced a disastrous prospect – that changes to intellectual property rights would seriously undermine patents and massively devalue their investment in new drugs.

The Solution

APCO's role was to help prevent this scenario from unfolding.

Our strategy included:

• Anticipating the strategies of the key players in the debate – from the most vocal to the nearly invisible – and analyzing the impact they might have on the IFPMA's position and strategies.
• Marshalling a set of compelling arguments which, in the short term, would make revision of the TRIPs agreement unnecessary, or even undesirable, and, in the medium term, begin to shift the debate on HIV/AIDS to reflect the complexities of the real world.

• Identifying the most influential policy-makers who would determine the outcome of the WTO negotiations, as well as a broader audience of key opinion-leaders who would help shape the debate on HIV/AIDS, poverty and development.
• Communicating the IFPMA's core arguments to priority audiences in a convincing manner.
• Demonstrating that the IFPMA was ready and willing to help address the healthcare challenge facing developing countries, while maintaining key aspects of the TRIPs agreement.

The Result

APCO's ability to work at senior levels of the international policy community and influence policy outcomes led to a successful defense of the intellectual property rights agreement at the WTO Ministerial Conference. The text was not re-opened.

The IFPMA renewed APCO's contract as it set out to engage afresh in the debate on access to medicines, the role of patents and the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to the global health challenge. APCO is now building a new dialogue between the IFPMA and the G8.

Services Provided

• Coalition building
• Crisis management
• Government relations
• Issue management
• Media relations
• Positioning

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