Helen Johnson

Helen Johnson runs Helen Johnson Public Affairs, which states that she is:

A qualified lawyer with an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, Helen Johnson has sixteen years’ practical experience of healthcare policy and regulatory issues, commercial law and political relations, ten years of which were spent working in the pharmaceutical industry.

After graduating with a first class honours degree in law from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1988, Helen qualified as a solicitor in October 1991, specialising in employment law and commercial litigation. In 1992, Helen joined the legal department of Roche Products Limited, the UK affiliate of the international pharmaceutical and healthcare organisation, Hoffmann-La Roche. At that time, Helen was one of two in-house lawyers providing comprehensive legal, commercial, regulatory and licensing advice to all Roche operating businesses in the UK and Ireland.

In 2000, Helen was appointed to the new post of Head of Public Affairs and was given sole management responsibility for devising, developing and implementing Roche’s first government relations strategy and tactical action plan, interacting with politicians, special advisers, government departments (Department of Health; Department of Trade and Industry), NHS audiences, patient representative and advocacy organisations, professional bodies and industry associations.

In April 2002, Helen left Roche to operate as a public affairs and policy consultant in her own right, setting up HJCL. She is currently working with a number of commercial and voluntary sector clients on a range of healthcare policy and political projects ranging from obesity, arthritis, cancer and Multiple Sclerosis, to the commissioning of specialised healthcare services, NHS commissioning and NICE technology appraisals.

Helen has over seven years’ experience of European public affairs, advising in particular on pharmaceutical licensing, regulatory affairs, patient advocacy, parallel trade and product reimbursement. Over the last four years, she have been involved in several pan-European medicinal product, healthcare and pharmaceutical initiatives, including the establishment and launch of a new pan-European trade body for regulatory affairs professionals (TOPRA), running advocacy workshops at a European patient group conference and lobbying for obesity to move higher up the EU agenda.

Helen currently sits on the Management Committee of the Association of Professional Political Consultants and has been an occasional contributor to Pharmaceutical Marketing's Communiqué Journal PMLive.com on topical communications and public affairs issues.