3 December 2019 - Deborah Wilkes
The Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB) is the winner of the first-ever OTCToolbox Consumer Healthcare Industry (CHi) Award for Lifetime Achievement. The industry association is celebrating its centenary this year.
Chief executive John Smith received the CHi Award at the OTCToolbox 2019 Consumer Healthcare Marketing Event in London, UK, on 28 November 2019.
Smith said he was "delighted to accept the award on behalf of all the staff and members, past and present, who have contributed to PAGB’s success".
Over the years, PAGB has worked to cut red tape, defended resale price maintenance for many years, shaped legislation from domestic and European Union parliaments, and raised the profile of self-care.
Commenting on self-care, Smith says PAGB’s first self-care meeting was held in 1972. “Although progress has been made,” he notes, “there is still more to do to fully embed self-care into the nation’s behaviour.”
Looking back on its achievements, PAGB highlights the Better Regulation of Medicines Initiative (BROMI) in 2005 as well as its contribution to streamlining the process for reclassifying the legal status of medicines.
Smith describes the increase in medicines switched from prescription-only to pharmacy (POM to P) and pharmacy to general-sale list (P to GSL) over the past 35 years as “incredibly positive”. “There is no other country in the world that has been as successful in providing people with highly effective treatments that they can use for self-care,” he remarks.
Five OTCToolbox CHi Marketing and Regulatory Affairs Awards were presented on 28 November 2019:
- European Launch of the Year
- European Marketing Campaign of the Year
- Regulatory Achievement of the Year
- Self-Care Initiative of the Year
- Lifetime Achievement
IQVIA Consumer Health sponsored the Networking and Awards Presentation Dinner at the OTCToolbox 2019 Consumer Healthcare Marketing Event.