Moving ahead in medical communications

David Swinbanks tells NGP about Nature Publishing Group’s recent move into medical communications with its new division, Macmillan Medical Communications.

Why has Nature Publishing Group moved into medical communications?
David Swinbanks. Nature Publishing Group, alongside Nature, publishes over 30 Nature-branded research and review titles in the life sciences, physical and chemical sciences, and clinical medicine. We also publish nearly 50 life science and clinical medical titles, such as Kidney International, the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the American Journal of Hypertension, and the British Journal of Cancer. Our portfolio of journals in clinical medicine has grown substantially in recent years and we have also launched a whole series of Nature-branded review journals in clinical medicine.

This wealth of high quality clinical medical content has opened up an opportunity for us to move into medical communications, based both on our content and our expertise in high quality medical publishing.

A second factor behind our decision to move into this area is our very strong and growing presence in Asia, where there are some of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world.

Nature has had a presence in Japan for over a quarter of a century, and in the past four years we have rapidly built our publishing capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Why was Macmillan Medical Communications (MMC) first set up in Japan?
DS. Japan is the world’s second largest pharmaceutical market, and neighbouring China is growing rapidly. Our first venture into content-based medical communications began in 2006 with our publication of Kidney International: Selections, a quarterly digest edition of Kidney International translated into Japanese and distributed to Japan’s nephrology community supported by an educational grant from Kyowa Kirin.

However, we quickly learned that the biggest slice of medical communications business lies outside of peer-reviewed content in bespoke publishing, medical writing and editorial services, and, most importantly, the handling of all aspects of drug launch campaigns. So, based on our reputation for high quality medical publishing, we embarked on a strategy to win bids against other large players in medical communications to handle some drug launches. I am pleased to say that in the space of less than three years we have won bids to handle the launch campaigns for two drugs that will go on the Japanese market in 2010.

Apart from Japan, what other markets is MMC operating in?
DS. Based on our success in Japan, we set up a new company in Madrid, NPG Iberoamerica, in 2007, with an MMC unit to handle medical communications in Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian in the markets of southern Europe and Latin America. Like its Japanese counterpart, it has quickly gone into profit. And this year we have set up an MMC unit in India using the infrastructure of Macmillan India, a large Macmillan company that has been operating in India for over a century.

Do you have plans for medical communications in the West?
DS. We already have a presence in pharma-related content sales in our NPG office in Boston, and we are investigating the potential for us to establish a larger foothold in medical communications in the West. In this regard, we would very interested to hear the views of your readers on how medical communications is evolving in the West, particularly with the advent of online publishing. If you are a reader working in medical communications and/or pharma sales we would be delighted if you would fill in our short online survey at www.natureasia.com/en/pharma_survey. You will receive a free copy of the results of the survey and 10 participants in the survey will be awarded on a lottery basis a one-year free subscription to the Nature journal of their choice.

David Swinbanks is Publishing Director of Nature Publishing Group (NPG), publisher of Nature, the international science weekly, and is responsible for all of the group's publishing activities in the Asia Pacific region, with headquarters in Tokyo and offices in Hong Kong, Seoul, Melbourne and Delhi. He is also the Publishing Director responsible for overseeing the group's global physical sciences publishing.

Nature, the international weekly journal of science, is one of the world’s most revered scientific journals. The publisher of Nature, Nature Publishing Group (NPG), has recently moved into the business of medical communications to support the pharmaceutical industry by setting up a new division, Macmillan Medical Communications (MMC), named after Macmillan the parent company of NPG. MMC recently won bids to handle the launches of two drugs in Japan. David Swinbanks, Publishing Director of NPG, explains this success and seeks your feedback at www.natureasia.com/en/pharma_survey/ on how medical communications is developing in the West.