Weber Shandwick Health Becomes First PR Network in Europe to Certify in Regulatory Compliance 

Published

LONDON, 8 March 2012 – Weber Shandwick is the first European public relations health network to become fully certified in promotional regulatory compliance by the Center for Communication Compliance (CCC).

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This milestone reflects the firm’s commitment to training and education, and recognises the importance of understanding the highly complex regulated environment of health communication.

 

“Our European health network is expanding throughout Continental Europe and we are developing successful European and global hubs outside of the US and UK. That’s why it is important for our healthcare teams to not only understand the local regulatory environment in which we are governed, but the broader European environment,” said Rachael Pay, managing director of Weber Shandwick’s European Health practice.

 

The firm completed comprehensive training modules and a two-hour online exam addressing Europe’s five major markets. Staff also studied the differences between the countries via a European comparator module.

 

“This has given our health teams and clients confidence that we know the nuances, understand the rules and can apply this knowledge when rolling-out communications programmes that comply across markets. It also ensures greater efficiencies by reducing the number of rewrites required when noncompliant materials are submitted for promotional review,” explains Pay.

We operate in a risk-averse environment and the cost of noncompliance is simply too high to leave regulatory savvy to chance. Compliance training has become a differentiator in the selection of agency partners.

Ilyssa Levins

CCC President and Founder

Laura Schoen, president Weber Shandwick’s Global Healthcare practice said, “Our ‘first to be certified’ position demonstrates commitment to ensuring team members across the world are fully informed, vigilant and efficient client partners.”

 

Weber Shandwick’s Global Health Practice has continued its double digit growth in 2011 with the expansion of the health practice and impressive new client wins across the biopharmaceutical, consumer health, corporate health and public health sectors.