MSD: Giving Cancer Patients a Voice

Cancer patients deserve access to innovative live-saving medicines, like Keytruda — an immunotherapy drug by MSD that arms the body's immune system to fight cancer. Whilst the drug is subsidised by government for common cancers like melanoma, for rarer cancers, patients are left in the lurch.

As MSD rallied for the subsidisation of Keytruda on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), we were engaged to use PR and social to put pressure on key stakeholders on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) to recommend Keytruda to be subsidised for the treatment of cancers such as CRC (AKA bowel cancer). 

We developed an always-on campaign that would react quickly to news and events via Twitter and LinkedIn using the hashtag #AccessToMedicines, and targeted two key groups: consumers and key decision-makers. This aggressive approach was something MSD, globally, had never tried before.

The campaign culminated in the PBAC, after their March 2021 meeting, recommending the listing of Keytruda on the PBS as first-line treatment for certain types of bowel cancer.