Richard E. Rotman, former publisher of the arts weekly Metropolis, is an independent public relations counsel and a consultant to Showcase Television.

The pharmaceutical public relations business has come back with a roar, now that baby boomers are deathly afraid of aging and becoming ill.

In the last several years, it has been rare for a drug launch to get news coverage in the daily media. Somehow, it all seemed too commercial.

But, recently, Health Protection Branch approvals of new therapies for osteoporosis and alcoholism blazed their way across the daily press, proving the public relations business to be again quick on its feet when the doors are opened.

Previously, in Strategy, we discussed how research came back as a pr tool, after it was moribund for a few years. Now, it's the return of pharmaceutical pr.

Part of the increased news coverage can be attributed to a changing of the guard in Toronto, which influences the media across the country.

At The Globe and Mail, Wallace Immen has taken over the medical reporting, and at The Toronto Star, Leslie Papp now handles the healthcare chores.

Coverage from these two reporters, plus Brenda Craig at the cbc and Avis Favaro at ctv, and other health policy reporters and science writers, means the amount of media time devoted to healthcare is enormous.

This also reflects Canadian society's preoccupation with the subject.

Healthcare is one of the few areas in which public relations activities can place a new product in the news section of a daily paper or in national broadcast news programs.

Cars have their own section, and so does fashion and food and technology. But almost no other consumer product is covered quite like pharmaceuticals.

Papp says he attends most of the new product news conferences, unless he has a conflict.

He cites movies and records as new products getting coverage, but acknowledges the pharmaceutical industry's unique status in the media.

Long-time pharmaceutical industry publicist Colin Buchanan, partner in charge of National Pharmacom, says numerous mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, like that of Glaxo taking over Burroughs-Wellcome, means there is more awareness of new drugs.

Buchanan also noted that many assignments are coming to the agency for direct-to-consumer communications, which do not rely on the media.

"We are switching gears in the pharmaceutical industry, receiving projects that previously went to consumer ad agencies," Buchanan says.

He calls the idea of a press conference "a dinosaur," pointing out direct-to-consumer tactics get the same amount of attention.

Linda Smith, Fleishman-Hillard's Toronto general manager, calls the healthcare environment "dynamic," saying that business is coming to agencies from unusual sources, such as hospitals facing closure and district health councils ordering the closings.

Smith says healthcare will continue to attract a high level of news coverage, due to the aging of the baby boomers.

"People are getting sick, and it's not going away," Smith says. "We are called on these days to deal with much more than new drug information.

"Such topics as managed care affecting the Canadian market were unheard of just a few years ago," she says.

However, Smith says budgets are not as high as at the beginning of the Nineties, when public relations for the introduction of new drugs were something of a fad and were accorded higher expenditures by pharmaceutical marketers.

Jennifer Spencer, president of Veritas Communications, says she was pleased over the reappearance of pharmaceutical news in the media, but says that it was not what necessarily sold drugs.

"We would forego coverage to work more directly with a patient group," Spencer says. "They have more open minds and want helpful information."

Spencer also says there was a great deal of realism on all sides, when dealing with drug information - agencies were not calling press conferences without having good stories, and reporters were more skeptical of the idea of a pharmaceutical breakthrough.

Pat Rich, managing editor of The Medical Post, sees more pharmaceutical news releases than anyone in Canada.

Rich says drug promotion is back in a big way, adding the increased activity also represents more advertising.

"I thought it might be dead," Rich says. "In the last six months, we've been inundated with news releases. I do think it does reflect increased public interest."

While it is good news for the pharmaceutical companies, this increased coverage comes with a small amount of public caution.

Companies are promoting their product over another, and using the media to help win their marketing battle.

Every time a prestigious publication such as The New England Journal of Medicine publishes a study favoring one product over another, the drug companies and their public relations arms are right on it, disseminating the news worldwide on the day of publication.

Physicians are coddled and funded to study drugs, and the emphasis on news media coverage prompts patients to ask doctors for specific preparations, which they then dispense, not wanting their "customers" to go elsewhere.

It is a cozy triad between the influencers, manufacturers and physicians, with the end-user a lucrative target, especially if the therapy must be maintained for life.

It is also another way the public relations business keeps renewing itself as it adapts to the ebb and flow of news judgments.

To comment on this article, contact Richard Rotman c/o Strategy or at 73117.2435 @CompuServe.com.