Quality of Pharma-sponsored Health Information on the Internet
Vol. 2, No. 2: February 2003
THIS IS A SUMMARY
RESULTS OF INDUSTRY SURVEY
In 2002, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) adopted a new marketing code to govern the pharmaceutical industry’s relationships with physicians and other healthcare professionals.
With all the bad press recently about marketing directly to consumers and privacy concerns, perhaps it is time for the pharmaceutical industry to self-regulate marketing to consumers as well, especially via the Internet.
There are a number of codes out there – including the eHealth Code of Ethics of the Internet Healthcare Coalition – that could be adopted by the industry for this purpose. However, what is the attitude of pharmaceutical professionals regarding the quality of pharma-sponsored health information on the Net? Does the industry perceive a problem in this area?
To help answer this question, a survey – Quality of Pharma-Sponsored Health Information on the Internet – was sponsored by the Internet Healthcare Coalition in conjunction with the Pharma Marketing Network (PMN) and was hosted by PollingPharma during the month of January, 2003. PollingPharma provides an opportunity to collect opinions of individuals working within the global pharmaceutical industry. Members of PMN were invited to participate. Some results of the survey are presented and analyzed in this article.
