On September 14th, a sold-out crowd of 500 of the life sciences industry’s best and brightest filled Gotham Hall for this year’s Trailblazer Awards Gala. Emmy-award winning actress, writer, and comedian Judy Gold, emceed for the third consecutive year with side-splitting material aimed at poking fun all around.
Of course, the real purpose of the night was to shine a spotlight on this industry’s stars from the past year, and by night’s end a total of 68 trophies had been given out—the most ever in our nine-year history! One of the highlights from the night included a rousing speech from Lifetime Achievement recipient Margaret G. McGlynn, the former President of Merck Vaccines.
As always, we make sure to put the fun in pharma by throwing a true celebration of the industry’s achievements. After the awards were given out, we handed out a few more prizes. Courtesy of three of our generous sponsors—Dudnyk, MicroMass Communications, and EMCAY—we had a drawing for three fantastic door prizes. And then DJ Keith Alexander turned up the music and attendees flooded the dance floor. Some kept dancing right up until midnight, but all good things must end. Until next year at least.
All Trailblazer photography by Ruby Star Photography
Ophthalmology/Optometry Brand Champion Sanjay Malieckal from Sun Ophthalmics with his colleague, Jason Menzo.
Sam Chen of DIABNEXT, the Gold Winner for Medical Device/Diagnostics Company, shares the excitement of winning with the rest of his table, which included Lauren Pugliese of Atlantis Healthcare.
Genevieve Ocampo from FCB Health and Deidre-Ann Nelson from Genentech can’t contain their joy after winning Gold for Product/Service Launch.
This trio from Sunovion are thrilled to be named the Gold Winner in the Professional Campaign category.
The group from Navicor celebrate their Silver win in the Patient/Consumer Education category.
John Kemble and Laurie Bartolomeo from Dudnyk show off their trophy for Gold Winner Direct-to-Patient Campaign.
Stefan Schröder of Langland US, and Erica Kirwin and Marie Palomeque of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness celebrate the win of Heartbeat, a fellow Publicis Health company, for being named the Silver Direct-to-Patient Winner.
Marketer of the Year winner Arpan Shah of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals had a lot to celebrate as his company was also named the Silver Pharma Company of the Year.
The representatives from Create NYC and Pfizer let out a cheer for winning Gold in the Social Media Campaign category.
Can you tell how excited Klick Health was to be named the Gold Advertising Agency of the Year?
This group from Calcium is enjoying some drinks during the cocktail hour, but they would really start celebrating later in the night after being named the Silver Winner for Advertising Agency of the Year.
PM360’s Creative Director Dawn Sebti lines up the perfectly framed selfie—proving her eye for design is not limited to our magazine’s pages.
Selfies are a surefire sign people are having a good time—and will want to remember it later.
ConnectiveRx breaks out the selfie stick to ensure everyone gets in the shot.
Mike Rivas from Novartis, the Pharma Company of the Year Gold Winner, with his wife, Carol.
John McKittrick, Augie Caruso, and Fabrizio Gambino from Health Monitor Network, the night’s Premier Brand Champion and Roundtable Sponsor.
Jeff Benedetto and R.J. Lewis from eHealthcare Solutions look sharp as they arrive outside Gotham Hall.
Neil Follett and Aaron Wheat, both of Brightworks, may have different tastes in style, but they both look sharp.
Marketer of the Year finalist Gayle McCracken Tuttle of HAP Innovations, LLC (center) with a couple of her colleagues from The Bloc.
Patrick Baffuto (far left) and Jay Romano (far right) from Hybrid Healthcare Communications with Michelle Gilson, Jennifer Cronin, and Reilly Decker from Sunovion.
Ted Search of Skipta with his wife, Veronica.
Before getting started with the awards, we had a moment of silent for PM360’s former COO/Partner Marc Stashower, who passed away late last year.
Lifetime Achievement Winner Margaret G. McGlynn delivers a speech that was met with thunderous applause.
Judy Gold kept the attendees laughing all night with her jabs at different drugs.
The group from Finn Partners deserved to have some fun after serving as the awards official PR company.
Casey Harris of Daiichi Sankyo raises the Unbranded Gold Winner trophy in the air with pride.
Kelly Gervolino and Ted Kruk from CoverMyMeds, one of the night’s sponsors, cut loose on the dance floor.
DJ Keith Alexander kept everyone on the dance floor with a steady supply of hits from both the past and present.
Everyone wanted a turn to show off their unique moves.
The dance floor was crowded all night with the overflow dancing between the tables.
Anna Stashower was at the center of the action on the dance floor.
Dermatology Brand Champion Tiffany Crawford from Novartis (far right) celebrates with a few of her colleagues.
The sold-out crowd filled Gotham Hall from wall to wall—with the exception of the dance floor of course.
When you have 18 Brand Champion winners in 17 categories it isn’t easy to fit them all into one pic, so here is just the first half of our winners.
Here is the other half of our 18 Brand Champion winners.
Men’s Health Brand Champion Brooke McCloy of Pfizer accepts her trophy from Mike Weiss of Health Monitor Network, one of the night’s sponsors.
Anna Stashower, CEO/Publisher PM360 shows off her moves with one of the break dancers.
Anna Stashower, CEO/Publisher PM360 thanks everyone who helped make this year’s awards possible.
Lifetime Achievement Winner Margaret G. McGlynn (left) with Adam H. Schechter of Merck, who was on hand to introduce her, and PM360 CEO/Publisher Anna Stashower.
Steven Michaelson from Calcium wouldn’t let a little rotator cuff surgery keep him from enjoying the night.
Anna Stashower with Jon Brulloths, GM and Director of Production & Media Development at PM360.
As always, PM360 enlists the help of a pair of break dancers to get the party truly started.
Anna Stashower, CEO/Publisher PM360, eyes all of the trophies to be handed out before kicking off the event.
Steve Hamburg from Calcium (center) and Ted Kruk from CoverMyMeds (right) announce the night’s Initiative Gold and Silver winners.
Andrew Burns and Mike Marett from Confideo Labs had a good night—their company won two awards.
Berca Stroman from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals came dressed to impress.
Jacquelyn Crane of Think Patients accepts the award for Gold Winner EMR/HER Program.
Snow Companies, a sponsor on the night, gather for a group photo.
Autoimmune Brand Champion Kayte Lock of Pfizer (center) has a drink with a couple of fellow Pfizer colleagues, Jennifer Travers (left) and Leyla Baloy (right).
The group from Dudnyk, another of the night’s sponsors, enjoys a good time at the cocktail party.
Concentric Health Experience and Ferring Reproductive Health share the stage to accept the Silver Professional Campaign trophy.
The pre-awards cocktail party sponsored by CoverMyMeds, was enjoyed by all, including some of our other sponsors such as Steven Millerman from EMCAY (far left) and Bob Cecere of Lifescript (far right).