In line with the growing demands for public communication and advertising from pharmaceutical companies, one of the country's leading advertising agency, Mudra Communications Pvt Ltd has launched its pharma communication division christened "Brand Therapist". According to Alan D'Souza, Head of the division, the objective behind the move is to meet the communication requirements of pharmaceutical companies to build brands.

"We have helped build successful brand images of many pharma majors over the years. We now plan to leverage this expertise gained from earlier projects into the new division, " said A.G. Krishnamurthy, chairman and managing director of the agency.

The new division will offer services which include creating brand names, packaging designs, and communication strategy for pharma brands.

Over the last one year a handful of advertising and public relation companies have set up separate division for handling pharmaceutical companies account. Ogilvy & Mather, Perfect Relations, RK Swamy BBDO are few of the early starters in the race having set up division exclusively for pharmaceutical companies.

With the Indian government all set to relax the rules regarding advertising of pharma products including those in the Schedule H list, pharmaceutical companies have been allocating funds for the same. Though the order for relaxation is still to come, pharma companies anticipate this to happen anytime now. Currently, pharma companies are only allowed to advertise over-the-counter products with the objective of creating a brand image for themselves.