Healthcare PR most robust sector, says ICCO poll

Sarah Robertson, PR Week UK, Friday, 06 August 2004, 12:00am,

Drug companies have fuelled the growth in the healthcare PR market during the past year, helping it to expand faster than any other PR sector, according to the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO).

The findings from ICCO’s latest survey of PR trade associations in its member countries revealed how healthcare spend continues to rise – and that the IT sector is also experiencing spending growth.

ICCO secretary general Simon Quarendon said: ‘Healthcare remains head and shoulders above everything else. Pharmaceutical companies continue to pump out new drugs into the market and there are continuous drug announcement cycles.’

But Quarendon warned that PR agencies should not expect a dramatic improvement in trading conditions this year – if at all.

ICCO’s survey also concluded that new business opportunities are emerging for agencies across central and eastern Europe, as governments there align their laws with the rest of the EC and communicate these changes to the public.