December 2007
	Giving Back Usually in this column, I attempt to offer at least one observation about things I see going on around me in the pharmaceutical industry that might help the pharmaceutical marketing researcher view his/her world in a slightly different way. And this month, in this holiday season, I will make no exception. More specifically, throughout my career, companies I have had the privilege of managing have sent holiday gifts to valued clients. For example, in recent years, GfK V2 has presented hundreds of huge boxes of Godiva chocolates to clients who supported us during the previous year. While in most cases these missives were met with enthusiastic response from the recipients, we also found ourselves faced with a growing number of “Don’t send our people gifts” letters from our clients’ management. In most cases, like many vendors, we politely chose to ignore those letters and focus on the thank-you notes. But not this year! Our industry is producing fewer genuinely new molecules than ever before. Our colleagues who haven’t already been rightsized fear on a daily basis for loss of their jobs. Marketing researchers are spending more time talking about the absolutely correct procedure for reporting Adverse Drug Events encountered in marketing research than about how to contribute to our body of knowledge. And most importantly, people are dying the world over because of a lack of a few pennies’ worth of drugs a day and a dearth of health care information. As we assessed our corporate gift-giving policy this year, quite simply, it seemed more the season to “give back” than it did the “season to be jolly.” In this spirit, we decided that each of our GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies would select a charity related to the clients with whom it works and the treatment areas in which it works, and make a substantial contribution to that charity to honor our colleagues who work so long and hard to improve health care, despite the bad rap our industry increasingly takes in the lay press. It seems most fitting that GfK Market Measures chose the American Diabetes Association as the recipient of its donation because of its Roper Global Diabetes program, which is considered the gold standard of diabetes research. GfK Market Measures’ contribution will be used to enhance the association’s research and education programs. There is no denying the great progress that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has made in the fight against breast cancer, and GfK Strategic Marketing is helping further this mission by contributing to this noble cause. While GfK Strategic Marketing currently dedicates time to clients’ oncology marketing research projects, the company will also dedicate time to giving back by getting actively involved with Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s volunteer efforts. GfK V2 selected SAHAYA-Youth Against AIDS, an organization founded by the American Indian Foundation that is working diligently to eradicate HIV/AIDs in India, a country with one of the world's largest infected populations. We were introduced to this organization by our good friend and colleague, Mandeep Bedi, who not only works diligently as a member of the group’s leadership council, but is supported in her efforts by Pfizer, where she works in marketing research. We laud Mandeep, we laud Pfizer for supporting her in giving back and we fervently believe that in the future it will be such efforts, rather than boxes of chocolates, that will reinvent our industry. We hope you agree, that you will let us know your perspective on this and will even pitch in to help give back in ways more personal, in addition to, and certainly not instead of, the huge contributions our industry has been making to health care around the globe for decades. The best to you and yours for a healthy and happy 2008! Richard B. Vanderveer, Ph.D. Group Chief Executive Officer GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies