MCS is headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey, and employs approximately 20 people. Within the healthcare sector they offer services for clients in product launches, patient education programs, crisis communications, social media, issues management, clinical trial communications, and marketing communications.
MCS Healthcare Public Relations
In their O’Dwyer’s profile, they say: “When it comes to media relations, we want home runs, not just hits. You have an important perspective to communicate, and only a quality article inclusive of your brand’s attributes constitutes a win. As part of our daily media monitoring, we evaluate each article’s impact on your brand and proactively answer the questions, ‘so what?’ and ‘what now?’”
Also, it’s important to note that there are at least two other “MCS PR” firms (not in the U.S.) that do not specialize in the healthcare services – one in the Netherlands and one in the U.K.
Leadership and Clients
Joe Boyd founded MCS in 1985, aiming right from the get-go to develop it into a leading PR firm in the healthcare sector.
He currently serves as the CEO of the company as well as a senior counselor to its clients, with over 30 years of healthcare PR experience and another decade of communications know-how under his belt. He is especially good with challenges the clients bring him such as product and category introductions, FDA concerns, and patent expirations. One of his favorite quotes is from Thomas Mann: “Order and simplification are the first steps toward mastery of a subject.”
Some of MCS’s clients include Merck, Genentech, MannKind Corporation, Bracco Diagnostic, and Cutanea Life Sciences. O’Dwyer’s ranks them as one of the top 15 healthcare PR agencies in the U.S.
Perks and Problems
Like many smaller firms with a strong emphasis on one sector, people at MCS have learned to be multifunctional, though they also bring specialty experience, usually in areas such as hospital or medical communications, pharmaceuticals, and journalism. The company offers good work-life balance as well as both competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits. They also have a paid sabbatical program.
Miscellaneous
MCS’s first job, back in 1985, was to create a campaign celebrating the eradication of smallpox. Their efforts aren’t just about client work, but they like to say they have a part in “getting stroke patients to hospitals faster, connecting patients and families to orphan drug therapies, launching public health initiatives in a variety of therapeutic areas and launching scores of new therapies…”
And that is MCS Healthcare Public Relations.