Press Releases

Dr. Richard B. Vanderveer Receives Top Honor in Pharmaceutical Marketing Research

Career Contributions of GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies’ Group CEO Recognized by the Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence and Research Group

Blue Bell, PA, June 27, 2007 — The GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies, the largest custom healthcare marketing research provider in the United States, announced that Richard B. Vanderveer, Ph.D., Group Chief Executive Officer, was honored with the Mary Clement Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence and Research Group (PBIRG) at its annual conference in Savannah, Ga., last month.

The PBIRG Lifetime Achievement Award is given annually to a pharmaceutical marketing research professional who exhibits outstanding leadership and character, as well as dedication to his or her company, colleagues and PBIRG. Dr. Vanderveer was honored for the significant contributions he has made during his more than 35-year career in the pharmaceutical industry. Most notably, these achievements include Dr. Vanderveer’s role in teaching the pharmaceutical industry to utilize the Individual Physician Level Prescribing Data (IPLRx) in the early 1990s, his pioneering of several new marketing research methodologies, his development of numerous training programs for the advancement of the profession and his founding and nurturing of several successful marketing research organizations.

In addition to expressing his gratitude when accepting the award, Dr. Vanderveer took the opportunity to encourage the PBIRG audience to recognize and rise to the challenge of being a pharmaceutical marketing researcher over the next five years. “While excellence in pharmaceutical marketing research has historically been defined in terms of new marketing research techniques for use in product testing, mentoring of new researchers and so forth, the next five years will gauge our excellence in terms of our ability to contribute to the reinvention of a pharmaceutical industry that is in rather dire straits,” said Dr. Vanderveer. “Whereas formerly we researched products and disease states, and certainly will continue to do so, I believe we now must turn our attention to helping the industry develop a more effective, efficient way of communicating with our key stakeholders, rather than simply bombarding them with promotional messages. In order to accomplish this, we will need to identify our stakeholders’ issues, wants, needs and motivations much more thoroughly than we are in touch with them now, and will likely develop significantly new and different methodologies to meet this challenge.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award was established by PBIRG to honor the memory of Mary Clement, a long-standing member and friend of the organization. Recent recipients of the award have included Alice Burstein of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Alan Bowditch of Martin Hamblin and Cliff Kalb of Merck & Co. Nominations for candidates must be supported by both a pharmaceutical manufacturer (industry) member of PBIRG as well as a supplier (agency) member, and the final selection is made by a four-person committee within PBIRG.

About GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies

The GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies – comprised of GfK Market Measures, GfK Strategic Marketing and GfK V2 – is the largest custom healthcare marketing research provider in the United States. Collectively, the GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies have more than 250 employees and service virtually all of the pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturing companies in the United States, as well as many of the largest manufacturers abroad. As a member of the GfK Group (GfK = Growth from Knowledge), based in Nuremberg, Germany, the GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies are part of the fourth-largest marketing research provider in the world. For further information please visit www.gfkushc.com.

About the Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence and Research Group

PBIRG is a non-profit industry association dedicated to the advancement of global healthcare marketing research, business intelligence and strategic planning in theory and practice. The objectives of the organization are to promote and enhance the image of the marketing research, business intelligence and strategic planning disciplines; to provide education and training to enhance members' knowledge and skills; to provide a forum to address industry issues; and to communicate and serve as liaison with other industry organizations. For further information please visit www.pbirg.com.