August 5, 2026

Why Biotechs Should Work with Separate Investor Relations (IR) and Public Relations (PR) Agencies

Just as investment banks want to market your IPO, be your ATM manager, offer you M&A advice, and sometimes also commercial banking services, so diversified communications firms will try and sell you bundled investor relations (IR) and public relations (PR).

As the founder of an investor relations-only consultancy, what I am about to say may seem self-serving, but it is based on more than a decade of experience advising biotechs:

Using a single provider for both IR and PR shortchanges you on both.

The supposed advantages of combining IR and PR with a single service provider is a simplification of the two services:

• One joint weekly meeting
• One account manager
• One contract
• One monthly bill
• Seamless coordination between your IR and PR teams

All of the above is supposed to make IR and PR easier for CEOs and CFOs to manage.

In practice however, clients tend to be allocated two separately remunerated teams – each headed by their own account manager/managing director – thus defeating the purpose of having a “single team.” Also note that biotechs are seldom offered a discount for combining IR and PR functions within a single provider, reinforcing the fact that you are in reality engaging two disparate profit centers under one brand.

However, with just one shared “communications” call, diversified communications firms tend to offer just enough progress each week on a combined IR/PR effort to make for a full call (and monthly invoice).

For example, a busy week on the PR front might give the IR team “a break” from doing their job. Vice versa, if IR had a busy week and can point to the progress they’ve made, PR can take it easy knowing that the client will likely feel happy with that week’s overall progress.

In order to maximize your IR and PR efforts however, you should split the functions between separate agencies and hold each one accountable for their work each week. This way, if either your IR or PR agency is coasting or worse, underperforming, it is immediately clear to you and you can take action by replacing just one and not two service providers.

Why do I believe this so emphatically?

Well, from my long-held seat solely in the IR function, I have grown increasingly frustrated over the years at seeing my cash-starved biotech clients be mis-sold (in my view) products and services by their PR company.

Too many of my biotech clients have been bamboozled into commissioning style guides, fancy videos that quickly become out of date or cause their corporate presentation to crash because the file size is too large, applications for meaningless awards, media training, or social media strategies years before they need them… as their PR company slowly sells them their repertoire of services one by one.

When biotechs engage PR firms it should be with a very clear remit for what they want to achieve. This should be made clear, and a PR provider should only be retained if they agree the goals are reasonable and achievable.

Generally, an early-stage biotech (i.e., one with an unapproved drug) has little reason to interact with the general public. They could however have an interest in media coverage to attract talent, to attract potential clinical trial participants, or to engage with patient advocacy groups, to name just a few relevant target audiences. Spell out your aims to your PR provider and ask them if they can meet your goals. Do not give them free rein to do whatever they want in the name of simply “raising your profile.”

Note also: the average biotech journalist is typically only interested in companies when they have human proof of concept data (Phase 2 and above), so if you’re not at this stage you might need to lower your expectations for what PR can do for you.

Biotech companies need to spend as much of their perpetually dwindling cash piles as possible on the advancement of their development pipeline. I believe this with all my heart. As such, make sure you get the most from every one of your service providers, and that includes your separate IR and PR providers.