Foundation

CGC was founded in 1992 as a management buy-out of the German PR-agency Leipziger & Partner and derives its name from its founder Hans-Joachim Cramer. The medical and sociopolitical journalist was managing director at CGC till 2004, when Dr. Klaus Schrage joined the management team.

Pre-marketing for Wrigley’s Extra only with PR

The PR activities involved dental scientists, representatives from health insurance associations and health education institutions and comprised TV, the print media and events. Attitude changes were measured by the GfK in four phases each year. At the end of the third year of the campaign, 85 per cent of dentists and 45 per cent of consumers recognised the message unaided and 95 per cent of both groups thought that it was credible. Wrigley’s Extra is launched.

Overcoming the fear of cortisone

Situation: unrealistic fears of the side effects of cortisone are counteracted by its practical use in asthma and rheumatism. Physicians are afraid that patients will refuse therapy after reading the package insert – if not before.

Implementation and successes: A continuing education package with a patient brochure and a physicians lecture are compiled in association with self-help organisations, and as a result are widely used by consumer organisations. An extensive information campaign in the trade and lay press is conducted simultaneously. Telephone campaigns with daily newspapers and popular magazines in particular are very well received by patients. An experienced physician runs his consultation hour once a week in the newly built Cortisone Information Centre (CIC), which is also used by office-based general practitioners to clarify therapeutic problems in specific cases. Sales of Merck’s range of corticoids soar.

PR secures reimbursement for fertility treatment

Promotion of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and guarantee of reimbursement: Around ten per cent of all married couples in Germany are unable to have children, whereas the causes are distributed equally between husband and wife. A 60 per cent pregnancy rate was achieved in the first IVF cycle. Given the high costs of approx. € 5,000 per cycle, the health insurance funds endeavoured to prevent reimbursement with the support of those gynaecologists who were not involved in IVF treatment (due to the high proportion of IVF in the total budget for gynecologists). The social acceptance of IVF was improved in background talks with health policy makers, mailings to the SHI and accompanying media work in the trade and lay press. At the same time Serono’s clients, the IVF gynecologists, received huge support for their work.

Cialis – the most successful launch in 2003

Communication of the USP of Cialis®, PR – support as from the pre-marketing stage: The best launch in 2003 succeeded in a market that was initially monopolistic and became highly competitive after the entry of Cialis®. Through trade media work the target group is increasingly conveyed that patient satisfaction is exceptionally high as a result of the 36-hour action window and the compatibility with rich meals and with alcohol. Therapy aids for office-based physicians and an instruction for the list of individual health services were compiled by an interdisciplinary advisory board. Comprehensive written and audiovisual information material was developed simultaneously for the individuals affected and their partners. General and individual questions by the persons affected are answered at an information centre. Cialis® now is the market leader in the rapidly expanding market of PDE-5 inhibitors.

Reinforcing the CGC Management Team

The medical and sociopolitical journalist Hans-Joachim Cramer was managing director at CGC till 2004, when Dr. Klaus Schrage joined the management team. Dr. Schrage had previously been marketing and sales director at a pharmaceutical company and was a very satisfied CGC customer.

CME-certified exams: Launch of the online portal www.my-cme.de

Since CGC is specialized in providing medical content, we offer high grade online-cme-exams for health professionals. Cooperating with our IT-partner company health & media since 2004, CGC has initiated the online education-portal www.my-cme.de.It is continuously refined by frequently offering new content from various indication areas and addressing different target groups.

Repha: OTC-Benchmark-PR

2004 represented a break for many OTC drugs in Germany, because their reimbursement by health insurance companies was cut back almost entirely. In 2004, ANGOCIN Anti-Infekt N had already been on the market for almost 50 years. ANGOCIN has regulatory approval for two indications – that doesn’t necessarily make targeted communications easier. The result of the PR analysis: old OTC, with apparently unspectacular ingredients, clearly outplayed in its advertising appeal by seemingly omnipotent competitors in the cold remedy market alone. But there was a glimmer of hope: The product works. And this fact was supported by several recent studies. In a classical antibiogram, Angocin’s ingredients, isothiocyants, proved their effectiveness. AND this effect was corroborated in current studies with patients. But CGC with its scientific-medical background recognized these facts very quickly – enthusiastically – and rigorously translated them into messages for the relevant target groups. Today ANGOCIN is seen as a benchmark case study in the phyto-OTC-market, because it is successful against the market trend. This is based on a clear focus on PR as the number one communications tool. An essential component of this success is that Repha and CGC put enormous trust in one another and share tasks. It is precisely this long-term PR approach that has enabled ANGOCIN to show above average sustainable growth since 2005.

Actelion: Orphan disease PAH – unheard of yesterday, in the news today

In 2005, PAH was an unknown indication, even within the groups of medical specialists confronted with the disease. In 2002, Actelion introduced a new class of substance – an oral dual endothelin receptor antagonist – that substantially improved the prognosis for patients affected by the disease. The quality of Actelion’s endothelin receptor antagonist was and is supported by Actelion with the help of clinical trials whose design and implementation has benchmark character. This clinical quality can also be found in open access medical education on a high-quality level (offline and online, see my-cme.de). Today PAH is no longer “rare” in the medical press, but is a, or perhaps “THE” standard orphan disease. But thanks to these activities, the lay press has also become aware of the topic “pulmonary hypertension”. There have been numerous reports describing the rare disease PAH – which is treatable today, even if it can’t be healed. By now there are several competitors on the market, but this hasn’t impacted Actelion’s market leadership. It’s precisely this stiff competition surrounding the best-validated PAH treatment which continues to give CGC a solid foundation on which to base their PR activities for Actelion.

The molecular biologist Dr. Schrage has been sole managing partner at CGC since 2008.

Alexion: PR during the EHEC-crisis

With the EHEC-crisis during the summer of 2011 the company that had thus far only been known to specialized medical doctors took center stage in the German media. 4,000 people, most of them in northern Germany, contract an EHEC infection, 400 of these patients develop the life-threatening hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). Because of a case study in the New England Journal of Medicine, Soliris is used off-label in this crisis situation. In this situation, Alexion USA decides to deliver Soliris free of charge to the hospitals requesting it. CGC is responsible for fielding enquiries from the media that suddenly assail the American ultra orphan drug research company. Together with the client, CGC develops a communications strategy and advises Alexion USA on how to interact with the German press. CGC helps organize interviews with selected titles (FAZ, FTD, Spiegel) and puts together FAQs to make sure the media is supplied with correct information. The agency evaluates the press coverage, makes summaries for the US company managers and gives the press background information on ultra orphan disease research.

European Network

CGC is a partner of a newly established pan-European network of experienced, independent, specialist healthcare communications agencies. We offer an integrated global and local approach that combines our joint expertise of country-specific healthcare markets with a hard-to-find passion to deliver top-quality communications that make a genuine difference for our clients.

www.arztCME.de and the Medical Tribune cooperate

The result is “arztCME plus“, one of the largest online continuing education platforms for doctors in the German-speaking world.

Dymista – CGC is responsible for communication on the gold standard in the treatment of allergic rhinitis.

With the fixed combination of azelastine and budesonide in an innovative galenic, Meda SE introduced a highly effective nasal spray for allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (AR) to the German market in 2015.

However, the market is characterized by a high OTC/self-medication share. Dymista is available only on prescription and must be prescribed by specialists (ENT, allergists) and general practitioners. CGC successfully handles the specialist and lay communication and Today, Dymista can be considered the gold standard in the treatment of AR.

Digital Health Heroes Award: Won – twice!

MeinAllergiePortal (www.mein-allergie-portal.com) receives the “Digital Health Heroes Award” – for its helpful, user-friendly and medically correct web-based information.

Further, two websites supported by CGC are honored: www.allergien-verstehen.de (category: “Allergies and Intolerances in General / Manufacturer Section”) and www.anaphylaxie-experten.de (category: “Anaphylaxis / Information Section)”

Mustard oils: Evidence based phytotherapy.

Phytotherapeutics must undergo the same clinical testing requirements as all other drugs: Marketing Authorization and clinical research demonstrating efficacy.

For mustard oils (isothiocyanates), extensive studies and investigations are now available for respiratory and urinary tract infections.

CGC is responsible, among other things, for the technical communication of this evidence, among others to representatives of professional societies, for example the German Society of Urology. In an intensive, open process, the study situation of isothiocyanates was put up for discussion with experts. CGC contributed to the inclusion of mustard oils in the S3 guideline “uncomplicated urinary tract infections” of the German Society of Urology.

#PAH_Neighbors: Launch of CGC Social Responsibility Engagement in Social Media Instagram & Facebook.

A special kind of campaign was launched in August 2018: after many years of PR work for the indication of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), CGC decided to get involved in raising awareness for the rare disease beyond a client assignment as part of a CSR project. With the social media campaign #PAH_Nachbarn, the agency, in cooperation with a PAH patient who happens to live in the direct neighborhood of the agency, educates via Facebook and Instagram about treatment, research approaches and, last but not least, everyday life with the disease.

CGC goes Switzerland

Max Zeller AG is the founder of rational phytotherapy in Switzerland. The research of Max Zeller AG is pioneering in the field of mode of action studies on herbal medicinal products. CGC councels and supports Max Zeller AG in professional and lay communication for several products in Switzerland.

#PAH_Neighbors reaches 450 000 unique users via Instagram and Facebook.

CGC stays on the ball! Our goal is to provide information about the rare disease PAH in order to enable undiagnosed patients to access diagnosis more quickly. Therefor we communicate the topic of PAH in a sustainable way. And that means a lot of manual work, perseverance and also redundancy – especially also in social media like facebook or Instagram.

Communication support for the successful launch of ANGOCIN Anti-Infekt N in Switzerland

CGC has been supporting the success story of ANGOCIN Anti-Infekt N in Germany since 2004. CGC is now allowed to bring its communication expertise in mustard oils to Switzerland and support the introduction of ANGOCIN Anti-Infekt N by Max Zeller AG in the country. Since the problem of increasing antibiotic resistance is also a growing problem in Switzerland, the introduction of ANGOCIN Anti-Infekt N there comes at the right time.

Certified training event on the occasion of the European Antibiotics Day.

The problem of antibiotic resistance has taken on global proportions. On the occasion of the European Antibiotics Day in November, CGC acts as organizer of the educational event “Avoiding antibiotic use for trivial infections: Herbal therapy options can alleviate resistance problems”. The event was certified by the Berlin Chamber of Pharmacists and the Berlin Chamber of Physicians in November and took place  at the Langenbeck-Virchowhaus in Berlin. It was attended by 100 physicians and pharmacists.

Implementation and planning of the first digital Advisory Board

The Corona year 2020 also posed a challenge for our Advisory Board meetings, which had traditionally been face-to-face-events: After three postponements of the on-site events, the Insomnia Advisory Board was scheduled digitally – with the advantage of international experts from Finland being able to participate time-flexibly during the lecture break!

Organization of the first digital European Antibiotics Week.

The digital execution was not exclusively due to Corona, but was already planned in virtual format in 2019. At the CME-certified event, five experts explained the problem of antibiotic resistance and the importance of alternative, evidence-based phytotherapy as a key solution.  Due to the facilitated access barriers, significantly more physicians and pharmacists participated in the digital conference than in comparable face-to-face events.

Communicative support of the medicinal plant of the year 2021

CGC has been managing the traditional drug Myrrhinil Intest since 2008. Its active ingredients consist of a combination of myrrh, coffee charcoal and a dry extract of chamomile flowers which is unique. Clinical studies have been conducted with the OTC drug for years. The efficacy confirmed in studies (evidence based) was also recognized in 2021 with myrrh receiving the award as medicinal plant of the year 2021. Public relations efforts to widely publicize the 2021 medicinal plant and its efficacy will be supported by CGC throughout the year.