Is Social Media Effective for Pharma Marketing?
I am attending and presenting at the 3rd Annual Pharma eMarketing Congress in Barcelona (see here) this week. Yesterday, I attended the pre-conference Social Media Training Day workshop presented by Alexandra Fulford and Sven Awenge, two people who are pharma social media evangelists.Many in the audience were new to social media and learned a lot. At the end of the day, workshop attendees were asked break up into groups (see photo on left) and come up with a social marketing plan for a hypothetical drug company and product. They had to consider such things as KPOs ("Key Player Objectives") and KPIs ("Key Performance Indica...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - September 12, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Survey social media Source Type: blogs
Just When You Thought Meta Tags Were Safe, Along Comes Twitter's "Ad Card"
You might recall this post I made three years ago: "Who's in Charge of Your 'Invisible' Metadata? WARNING: Don't Invoke the 'Invisibility Rule'".In that post I pointed out that Google automatically grabs meta data or "tags" (invisible text that describes the content of the web page) from Rx product web sites when generating the content for natural search results. Meta data text is written by the web developer, but it is visible to the Google search engine, which republishes it verbatim as if it owns the content without getting permission from the web developer.If you are an unscrupulous pharma marketer, you can use this to...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - September 10, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: AstraZeneca social media meta data Source Type: blogs
Is Your TweetChat "Regulation Safe?" Regulators Should Publish Opinions on Specific Social Media Initiatives Such as #COPDChat
Yesterday, I cited a bit of ABPI code of Practice in relation to Boehringer's #COPDChat: "Using twitter to alert health professionals about the publication of a study on a medicine is likely to be considered promotion of that medicine."Paul Tunnah of pharmaphorum commented that "I am not sure ABPI code as written above prohibits tweetchats. Clearly, promoting medicines via Twitter is a big no-no, but if the intention of the tweetchat is to understand disease area issues and challenges (ie. more about research, as I see this as doing) and is not mentioning specific products or data related to them why would it contravene th...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - September 6, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: FDA social media PMCPA Twitter Legal/Regulatory Chat Source Type: blogs
Will Social Media Make it Harder for Pharma to "Hide" Drug Side Effects?
John LaMattina, former Pfizer president of Research and Development, suggests that FDA regulations make it virtually impossible for the pharmaceutical industry to "hide" drug side effects. "Most people don’t have a clue as to the vigorous requirements put on pharma by the FDA for reporting a drug’s side effects," says LaMittina. "Actually, specific regulations exist as to how the industry must handle and report adverse events" (see "Can Pharma Hide Side Effects Of Marketed Drugs In The U.S.?").LaMattina laments that he "often get[s] attacked that I am defending an evil empire." Some might say a "criminal organization" ...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - September 4, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: social media Adverse events Source Type: blogs
Boehringer Takes My Advice and Will Host the First-Ever Disease Condition TweetChat: #COPDChat
Two-and-one-half years after AstraZeneca hosted the First-Ever pharma Twitter chat (see "OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End!"), Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) has announced that it will host a #COPDChat Tweet Chat at European Respiratory Society (ERS) 2013 Congress, Mon 9 Sept @ 5pm CEST. BI registered the #COPDChat hashtag with Symphur just a week or so ago. This, however, was not the first use of the #COPDChat hashtag.I first suggested that BI host a #COPDChat back in November, 2010:"It appears to me that a pharma-hosted Twitter chat about a disease condition would be of high interest to consumers an...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - September 4, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Boehringer Ingelheim social media Twitter COPD Chat Source Type: blogs
Janssen Engages HIV Community on Tumblr: Build It and They Will Come?
A few months ago, I engaged Peter Houston (@Flipping_Pages) in a discussion about whether or not pharma "should" do Tumblr, a social media site that allows users to post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from browsers, phones, via email or wherever (see "Should Pharma Do Tumblr?"). Here's some comments from Houton regarding Tumblr's youthful user base, which I thought was inappropriate for pharma: Could Pharma Use Tumblr and Survive? In this 3-minute audio snippet, Peter Houston, founder of Flipping Pages Media Ltd, discusses the pros and cons of Tumblr and whether it is possible for ...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 31, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Janssen Tumblr Johnson and Johnson social media HIV Source Type: blogs
Boehringer Ingelheim's Facebook Page Joins the "Over 50K Likes Club." You've Come a Long Way, Baby!
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) - the German pharma company with the famously difficult-for-nonGermans-to-pronounce name (see "BI's Famously Buxom and Unpronounceable YouTube Video") - just posted a video on YouTube expressing thanks for the 50,000 people who have "liked" its Facebook page. Actually, there are over 58,000 likes as of today.The video features Allan Hillgrove, who was recently elected to BI's Board of Managing Directors, Division of Pharma Marketing and Sales. Unfortunately, I cannot find Mr. Hillgrove's LinkedIn page or Twitter account. Maybe he's one of those pharma C-level executives who have not previously (or...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 29, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Boehringer Ingelheim social media FaceBook Source Type: blogs
What Are Past Pharnaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Winners Doing Today?
Now that the 4th Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award winner will soon be announced, it's a good time to review who won the awards in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and learn more about what they are doing today. Here's the SlideShare presentation: The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award from Pharma Guy You will notice that two of the three past winners are no longer working inside pharma.Alex Butler, who won the Award in 2010, is now an independent consultant, TEDMed speaker and successful social media maven having over 76,000 followers on Twitter. He is still "focused on supporting the pharmaceutical industry," however....
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 23, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Joan Mikardos Urbaniak Social Media Pioneer Award Laura Kolodjeski Tony Jewell Alex Butler Source Type: blogs
Paid Docs Twice as Likely to Prescribe Sponsors' Drugs - But They Must Be Paid Well! Is the ROI Worth the Bad Press?
Doctors in the US who are paid and entertained by drug companies are more than twice as likely to prescribe their products, according to a "groundbreaking new study on the influence of industry marketing on medical practices" (find the study attached to this post). The findings are based on "recently released data that 12 companies have been forced to make public as a result of US regulatory settlements," reports the Financial Times."Among a sample of 334,000 physicians, researchers found a typical doctor had a 13 per cent chance of prescribing the drugs of a dozen leading pharmaceutical companies. Among the 193,000 who re...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 22, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: payments to physicians Bad Pharma Free Lunch Physician Sunshine Act Reputation Source Type: blogs
4th Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Goes to...
Pharmaguy™ (aka me) has recognized pharma social media "pioneers" for the past three years by handing out the PHARMAGUY™ SOCIAL MEDIA PIONEER AWARD -- the coveted bright yellow Hawaiian shirt (see below) -- at the Annual Digital Pharma East conference.Who will take home the shirt this year? Rather than recognizing specific pharma social media sites or campaigns, the Pharmaguy™ Social Media Pioneer Award gives kudos to a pharmaceutical executive or team who has "pioneered" in the use of social media for marketing or research. Pioneers overcome many obstacles to launch social media projects or promote social media wit...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 20, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Awards Pharmaguy social media award Source Type: blogs
Physicians are Powerless Pawns of Pharma Psychology
According to Harvard and Georgetown University ethicists and academics, "pharmaceutical and medical device companies apply social psychology to influence physicians’ prescribing behavior and decision-making." This is according to Sunita Sah and Adriane Fugh-Berman, authors of “Physicians Under the Influence: Social Psychology and Industry Marketing Strategies”, part of a symposium on institutional corruption and pharmaceutical policy in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2013: Vol. 14 (3). "Physicians fail to recognize their vulnerability to commercial influences due to self-serving b...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 17, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: key opinion leaders Physician Marketing Source Type: blogs
AstraZeneca Posts an Arimidex DTC Ad on Its Corporate Blog - Will It Go Viral?
AstraZeneca is breaking new ground in social media drug promotion... again. It has posted a branded promotion for its breast cancer drug Arimidex on AZ Health Connections, which is "A blog for AstraZeneca's US business."The post -- titled "AstraZeneca’s ARIMIDEX® (anastrozole) tablets Direct program provides valuable resources to program enrollees"-- promotes ARIMIDEX Direct, which is AstraZeneca’s "first-ever direct-to-patient program. It enables eligible patients to easily enroll and receive brand-name ARIMIDEX delivered directly to their home for $40 per month, including shipping."There is no doubt that in the...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 17, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Arimidex AstraZeneca AZ Health Connections breast cancer DTC Advertising Pharma Blogosphere Source Type: blogs
Good Riddance to Old Guidance: FDA Intends to Purge & Revise. What It Means for Social Media Guidance Hopefuls
FDA has often said that developing guidance for applying regulations to social media is like nailing jelly to a tree. Actually, OPDP head Tom Abrams has said FDA would NOT "do guidance on specific technology platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter ... [because] those things are really big now, but you know what, two years from now who knows what the next thing [will be]?" He said that at an industry conference exactly two and one-half years ago (see "FDA's Abrams Spends 4 Minutes Discussing Social Media Guidance at ePharma Summit!").You know what? YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are still here and there really hasn'...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: #fdasm Guidance social media Tom Abrams Source Type: blogs
What You Mean "WE," Kemosabe?
In this month's MM&M editorial titled "New dialogue, old hangups," Editor-in-Chief James Chase talks about the reluctance of the pharmaceutical industry to embrace digital marketing."As an industry," Chase says, "we've never been comfortable working with moving targets. We like to test things over time, not experiment on the fly. We're far more comfortable establishing procedures than establishing relationships. We like to follow regulations to the letter, not follow conversations we didn't start and cannot control. We like finite endpoints, not endless continuums. We often put incomes before outcomes. And while we hav...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Diddies and Spoofs Trade publications Source Type: blogs
Pharma Peeps: Stop Trying to Separate Your Personal and Professional Identities on Social Media Sites
Are you one of the pharmaceutical executives who have a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account? If so, you probably have disclaimers such as the following as part of your profile (taken from this list: "Pharma Social Media Twitter Accounts"):"Marketing with sanofi-aventis US. These tweets are my opinion alone and not the opinion of any organization with which I am affiliated." -- @ABoyle129"Director, Social Media for Bristol-Myers Squibb, former journalist and co-author: How to Say It: Marketing with New Media. Opinions and tweets here are my own." -- @alisonwoo"passionate on healthcare. changing world w/ social innovation...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 14, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: ePharma Pioneer Club social media Twitter Source Type: blogs
