Winner of PR Boutiques International’s Accelerator Contest Receives Pro Bono PR Services
In early 2018, Public Relations Boutiques International (PRBI), an international association of boutique PR agencies, announced a new initiative, an accelerator program to kickstart communications for several key startup companies. The program was a competition, with a committee of PRBI members serving as judges to choose several worthy applicants to receive approximately $50,000 worth of pro bono communications advisory services. Four startups were selected as winners in mid-2018. The communications advisory services were provided to the four winning firms by teams of senior public relations professionals at PRBI member companies in several countries.
Over the next few months, we will provide PR case studies of the work that was done for the four winning startups. The first one follows.
Background
Oncoceutics, Inc., a startup pharmaceutical research and development company, discovered that the cancer drug it is developing, ONC201, works particularly well in combatting a rare form of brain cancer. Early results in ONC201 clinical trials suggest that it can kill cancer cells without killing normal cells, and that it may be particularly effective for brain cancer patients with a type of tumor called a glioma.
Gliomas are a deadly form of cancer with short survival rates and no known cures. U.S. Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, and Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau Biden, all died of a subcategory of glioma, glioblastoma. Oncoceutics’ research has shown that some patients who have a particularly aggressive form of glioma, H3 K27M-mutant high-grade glioma, are highly sensitive to ONC201. Patients with this genetic mutation in their tumors have responded well to ONC201, with tumors shrinking in some cases by as much as 96 percent. In November 2018, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to ONC201 for treating adults with recurring H3 K27M mutant high-grade glioma. Fast Track designation is intended to facilitate the development of treatments for serious, life-threatening medical conditions with unmet medical needs.
Goals
Oncoceutics wanted to better inform the brain tumor community, including physicians, patients and/or their families to increase awareness of ONC201 clinical trials for H3 K27M-mutant high-grade glioma. The budget available for this was very low.
The Challenge
Oncoceutics, currently in Phase II clinical trials of ONC201 for H3 K27M-mutant glioma, needs patient volunteers to participate in the trials. It isn’t easy to find patient volunteers with a rare type of cancer, let alone an uncommon form of a rare type of cancer. As the ONC201 clinical trials progress and move towards a potential FDA approval, greater numbers of patient volunteers will be needed. Oncoceutics, a startup without any products on the market, doesn’t have either a well-known name or a large budget for patient outreach to make itself known to potential patient volunteers, their families and their physicians.
Strategies
As a winner of the PR Boutiques International Accelerator competition, Oncoceutics was assigned a team of three senior public relations executives to provide communications counselling to meet its goals: Paul Furiga, Wordwrite Communications, Pittsburgh; Joy Scott, Scott Public Relations, Los Angeles; and Lucy Siegel, Lucy Siegel LLC, Provincetown, Mass. After meeting with Oncoceutics, the PRBI team recommended the following steps:
1. The company’s messaging had been aimed chiefly at scientists and investors. The PRBI team advised Oncoceutics to revisit the messaging on their website and in their overall communication to better engage with patients, families and physicians. As a result of this process, new messaging was developed specifically for those groups with a call to action: “Get your/your patient’s tumor tested to see if it carries the H3 K27M mutation. If it does, you/your patient may be a candidate for ONC201 clinical trials.”
2. Brain cancer patient groups are a very important resource for glioma patients and their families. as they are very knowledgeable about the disease and the clinical trial process. These groups should be a separate audience from patients for Oncoceutics. By reaching out to patient groups, Oncoceutics could inform leaders and patient advocates, who in turn could conduct patient outreach to educate the rank and file of patients and their families. Many brain cancer patient groups also have close relationships with prominent physicians.
3. Oncoceutics’ new communications channels to patients, families and physicians would direct them to the company’s website for more information, so the website needed modification to deal with this effectively.
4. In addition to spreading its new messaging to physicians at professional meetings, PRBI team suggested that Oncoceutics use email and regular mail campaigns aimed at medical society members who weren’t at the meetings.
Tactics
The PRBI consulting team was able to interview the founder and head of one prominent brain cancer patient group to gain more insight into the types of information brain cancer patients and their families look for, and how patient groups communicate and interact with their various constituencies. This was helpful in planning and executing the outreach tactics.
New website pages were set up for physicians and for patients and families. Website copy reflected the messaging assigned to each group.
An informational document for a non-scientific audience was written that explained ONC201’s potential benefits for some brain cancer patients, and explained the very precise target audience for the drug’s clinical trials. Oncoceutics shared this information brain cancer patient groups, asking for their help in distributing this information to patients and their families.
Results
• New action-oriented messaging directed at patients and physicians has led to an increase in patient inquiries.
• Opening up channels of communication with patient groups resulted in the development of helpful new relationships with groups that support the company’s objectives and have resources that are beneficial to the company in communicating with patients and their families. As a result, the company is actively collaborating with several patient advocacy groups and has received support for the expansion of its clinical program from these groups.
• Within only a few months, the two new website pages have created additional traffic on the company’s website (25% increase) and several media outlets, physicians and patient advocacy groups approached Oncoceutics to explore opportunities to collaborate. Further, the company has received significantly more inquiries about participation in clinical trials.
• The initial media attention has led to several additional human interest stories that were published in newspapers and magazines, including People magazine.
Map from Patientwing.