The European SABRE Award and the Civil Society Award in 2008 for the campaign "Dăruieşte din inimă” (“A Gift from Your Heart”)

Bucharest, 23 May 2008

The 6th edition of “A Gift from Your Heart”, a campaign organised in 2007 by “React” Association and LaborMed Pharma, was the winner in the Public Education category in the SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards for 2008. It represents the most important European PR award. Two days before, the campaign had also won the most “crowded” category in the 2008 Civil Society Awards, namely “Civic behaviour and public involvement”, a category in which as many as 26 campaigns had applied.

Overall, in the 2008 Civil Society Awards competition, the 6th edition, 115 social projects were entered. The awards were granted on Tuesday, May the 20th, at the Romanian Athenaeum.

This year, the European SABRE awards took place in Venice. The Public Education category included four other nominations for campaigns belonging to associations and agencies from England, France, Germany and respectively Belgium. SABRE is the acronym for Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation. Last year the awards gathered over 1000 applications from 20 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

A year ago, "A Gift from Your Heart” generated 9000 donors in 12 university cities, central editorial offices and companies, turning into a national post-1989 record as far as donors/centre/day are concerned, in no more than two weeks.

The organizers declared: We want to dedicate this award to the thousands of donors of this campaign, young people who literally gave their blood for a noble idea - helping the needy neighbour. We thank all of them!

The last two editions of “A Gift from Your Heart”, namely the 5th (2005) and the 6th (2007) editions received as many as 6 awards overall: the Golden Award for Excellence and then the Special Award for Continuous Quality at the Romanian PR Award; the Medic.ro Award for Excellence; honourable mention, then the prize in the Civil Society Awards; the most recent one is also the most valuable, the European SABRE award.

The Media relations for the campaign were also accomplished with the support of the Rogalski Grigoriu Agency.

LaborMed Pharma was founded in 1991. As of February 2008, Advent International became the majority shareholder of the Group. The company stands for over 80 products, important market shares in two major therapeutic categories (cardiovascular and central nervous system), € 28 million worth of sales in 2007, 470 employees, a national distribution network, the most modern dedicated factory in the country... LaborMed Pharma has been also an associate member of the European Generic Medicines Association since 2002.

The REACT Association is a non-governmental organization, focusing on social projects, and especially on the youth. Its programmes aim at three areas: public health, education and environment. The association is based on students and graduates in medicine, journalism, IT and philosophy who believe in and act towards enhancing the spirit of civil society; REACT has branches in 9 university cities in Romania.