By Jeff Smokler
Originally published in MM+M
Anyone who has ever worked as a marketing and communications consultant to drug manufacturers knows that the relationship between brand marketers and their corporate affairs colleagues is a little like that of Professor X and Magneto from X-Men: aligned on the mission, often divided on the strategy, and constantly negotiating how to shape the future.
Part of that stems from the historic discrepancies in budgets between the two groups. It’s one thing to joke about friendly competition, but adapting to the industry’s current legislative and regulatory environment is going to expose the deeper consequences of the split for an industry whose funding pendulum has swung too far in one direction.
For decades, pharmaceutical companies have allocated vast majorities of their marketing budgets to individual brands, particularly consumer advertising designed to drive near-term prescription demand. Corporate and public affairs teams, by contrast, have typically received only a small fraction of that investment.
That imbalance may have been sustainable in a more predictable policy environment. In 2026, amid the most challenging regulatory conditions the drug industry may ever face, it has become a strategic liability.
Read the full article on MM+M.
