24 | PublicAffairsNews | September 2013

PROFILE – ALAN MAINE

Only financial services and the media are less trusted than the pharmaceuticals industry. As head of government affairs and policy for the pharmaceutical

giant Pfizer, Alan Maine knows that per-ception matters: where the public lead, politicians follow and a poor reputation is a weakened hand when it comes to negoti-ating with the Government.

Maine has spent the last nice years working in pharmaceutical public affairs, having previously been a senior member of Conservative Research Department. He admits there is an “inherent and quite easy bias against what the industry does”, to which the response is a continual reinforcement of the message that Pfizer is a partner with the government, not an adversary.

That means highlighting their shared interests in in-novation for the benefit of patients. Behind closed doors, it means speaking to the right people in government – being aware of the NHS agenda and working with it.

If half his job is burnishing Pfizer’s reputation on the corridors of power, the other is lobbying hard to get its products to market. Maine, 43, wants the govern-ment to remember that medicines are “part of the solution” of NHS finances and “not the problem”.

Medicines like the statins for high cho-lesterol which save 10,000 lives a year, he points out, are a key value driver in the health service. “We are part of the NHS team,” he insists.

Maine doesn’t see himself as “a lobbyist per se” though. “It’s a two-way conversa-

tion with government, and they knock on our door as much as we knock on theirs,” he says.

And he shows a familiar circumspec-tion toward the idea of a lobbying register while simultaneously insisting that “we do believe that transparency in public af-fairs is highly important and something we completely agree with”.

Common routeMaine followed a common route into pub-lic affairs, through almost a decade’s direct involvement with politics, at various levels of the Conservative party. His interest in

politics was another classic route: an inspiring teacher at school and two parents them-selves in local politics – his father was Lord Mayor of Portsmouth in 2000.

It was a case of bad tim-ing though, and he eventually tired of work in the Conserv-ative Research Department in 2004 – a “grizzly veteran” of two lost elections who didn’t fancy another defeat (with ex-

cellent foresight). Previous lobbying expe-rience had left him with an interest in tak-ing an in-house role and he began work for Vincent Lawton, then managing director of Merck Sharp & Dohme and President of the ABPI. It turned out to be the start of a decade-long love affair.

Maine says he loves working for the cut-ting edge, doing “a huge amount of good”, and he enthuses that a lot of it touches him directly.

“My father and mother are pretty much kept with us by use of the medicines that we make, and so you see that connection with your own family as well. It makes

The biker driving Pfizer’s work with government

Alan Maine has worked in a range of pharmaceutical public affairs roles for the past nine years. He talks to Richard Welbirg about his aims and concerns for the industry

It’s a two-way conversation with government, and they knock on our door as much as we knock on theirs

BORN: Portsmouth

EDUCATION: Royal Hospital School, Suffolk; Queen Mary College (Politics and History)

LIVES: Highgate, North London

HOBBIES: Motorbiking, Portsmouth FC

CV DATES

2009-PRESENT: Head of government affairs and policy, Pfizer UK

2008-2009: Head of government affairs, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

2006 - 2008: External affairs manager, Merck Sharp and Dohme

2004-2006: Manager, ABPI President’s Office, Merck Sharp & Dohme

1999-2004: Head of foreign affairs section, Conservative Research Depart-ment

1995-1999: Political consultant, Market Access (now GPC)

1992-1995: Researcher, Douglas French MP

Alan Maine FACTFILE

September 2013 | PublicAffairsNews | 25

PROFILE – ALAN MAINE

of care’ in the UK, which is simply pain management – which isn’t really an equita-ble basis to assess medicines.”

There is a frank, two-way discussion between the drug companies and NICE, but Maine also pushes the government to consider how the quango can be reformed.

Then there’s pricing, and the quinquen-nial negotiations between the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and the Department of Health which mean so much to the pharmaceutical firms. There’s a spike in activity in the industry every time the talks come around – a new pricing agreement is due soon, but the argument over cost rages constantly.

Maine explains he has to constantly stress the value of medicines, because they “often appear to be a painless thing to cut” – something which has long-term con-sequences “for patient care and the firms decisions to invest in new drugs”.

Speed demonMaine insists that the downward pressure on medical spending as the NHS attempts to make real-terms cuts is making life in-creasingly difficult at Pfizer, as British drug prices are already among the lowest in Europe.

Nevertheless he still enjoys turning up at work every day, not least after speeding in

you extremely motivated to make sure these medicines reach patients,” he says.

The very fact the work goes “unrecog-nised by the public at large” makes it all the more of an appealing challenge in his eyes. And it is a challenge: six managers report to him, covering each unit of the business “as a lot of other pharmaceutical companies in their own right” – and each of the UK’s devolved Parliaments.

“It’s a job in itself to keep everything on the same track,” he admits. He has to ensure the managers remain aligned across the firm. Never mind the NHS, Pfizer is large enough to have its own internal mar-ket to be served, he stresses.

NICE-ly doneOne of Maine’s primary goals is reform of the National Institute for Health and Clini-cal Excellence, a battle big pharma has been waging for around a decade, with degrees of success. Maine is critical of the hur-dle NICE sets for access to market, “after we’ve spent millions of dollars and several years to find life-saving medicines and vac-cines”. He argues the comparators it uses in the assessment of drug performance are “not always the most appropriate ones”.

“For example”, he says, “the cost effec-tiveness of one of our cancer medicines is compared against what you call ‘standard

My father and mother are pretty much kept with us by use of the medicines that we make

on his beloved BMW S1000RR motorbike.Maine is so enthusiastic about his mode

of transport that he recommends it to PAN, describing it as “a hugely enjoyable, convenient and challenging thing to do”.

Pete Digger, managing director at Good Relations, followed Maine as researcher to Douglas French. He is well aware of the Pfizer public affairs chief’s love affair with his motorbike.

“Alan has always been a popular and well-known figure within the industry and was a stalwart of Conservative Central Of-fice in the darkest of days,” says Digger.

“He is particularly well known for his wicked sense of humour [but] never ask him any-thing about motorbikes. You will be in for a long and detailed discussion.”

But Maine insists his bike is not just good fun, but a key component of his public affairs career to date. Indeed, with the big pharmaceuticals firms all

located around the dreaded M25, Maine reckons he may not have lasted in the in-dustry without his bike.

“Being on two wheels saved me many days and weeks sitting in traffic, which would have sent me bananas,” he laughs. PAN

George Osborne and David Willetts visit Pfizer’s Sandwich site in August 2011. Maine describes the company as “part of the NHS team”.