Gilead Sciences

Overview

In the wake of COVID-19, the healthcare industry faced increased pressure to increase their commitments in health equity. For Gilead Sciences, this meant moving beyond grantmaking to define a strategy that could strengthen its brand and be operationalized across the business. The challenge was to translate health equity from a set of investments into an integrated strategy that shaped engagement, operations, and external positioning.

Approach

A narrative, engagement and thought leadership strategy developed to connect health equity to both business priorities and real-world impact.

• Defined a clear narrative platform
  
  • Established a unifying framework connecting health equity to Gilead’s mission, including HIV prevention and treatment and broader efforts to address disparities
• Aligned strategy across the enterprise
  
  • Planned and executed inaugural health equity summit, featuring former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and created a master internal repository of messaging, terms, and guidance to drive integration across all functions. 
• Activated community-centered engagement
  
  • Supported partnerships with community-based organizations and healthcare professionals to expand capacity for education, outreach, and care delivery
• Elevated executive visibility and thought leadership
  
  • Positioned senior executives as credible voices on health equity through speaking engagements and earned media

Outcomes

• Gilead adopted a new brand narrative and strategic vision centered on health equity, aligned to its mission and commercial growth strategy
• Health equity messaging helped market expansion with therapeutics to underserved populations in the U.S., and Africa
• Expanded capacity-building engagements with community-based organizations and providers  priority populations
• Elevated executive visibility and industry positioning through secured placements at EssenceFest, BlackDoctor.org, and other forums

Secured earned media coverage in The New York Times, Black Enterprise and other outlets around health equity-centered drug development and thought leadership

Conclusion

The work reflected here is grounded in a clear point of view that reflects our mission at Buoyant: advancing equity requires translating complex issues into narratives that people can understand, connect with, and act on. For APHA, that means supporting a campaign that helps people better understand the role public health plays in their lives, so that its value is more visible, its work more widely supported, and its impact more fully realized in the communities we serve.

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