2002

PHARMA MARKETING NEWS is the periodic newsletter of the PHARMA-MKTING email discussion group. It includes original articles, opinions from leaders in the field of interactive pharmaceutical marketing, industry news briefs, and useful information abstracted from subscriber discussion threads. The dot-coms have come and gone. Pharma companies seem to be de-commissioning their e-business divisions. Managers are losing their e prefixes in their titles. The vast unemployed victims of downsizing are eliminating the e words from their resumes. Is this the end of everything e and the Internet? Is it a waste of time and money using technology, including the Internet and wireless PDA applications, to reach physicians? Is it about time that pharmaceutical marketers reverse the lopsided budget spent on physicians vs consumers, at least when it comes to the Internet and other high technology channels?

PHARMA MARKETING NEWS is the periodic newsletter of the PHARMA-MKTING email discussion group. It includes original articles, opinions from leaders in the field of interactive pharmaceutical marketing, industry news briefs, and useful information abstracted from subscriber discussion threads. The dot-coms have come and gone. Pharma companies seem to be de-commissioning their e-business divisions. Managers are losing their e prefixes in their titles. The vast unemployed victims of downsizing are eliminating the e words from their resumes. Is this the end of everything e and the Internet? Is it a waste of time and money using technology, including the Internet and wireless PDA applications, to reach physicians? Is it about time that pharmaceutical marketers reverse the lopsided budget spent on physicians vs consumers, at least when it comes to the Internet and other high technology channels?

PHARMA MARKETING NEWS is the periodic newsletter of the PHARMA-MKTING email discussion group. It includes original articles, opinions from leaders in the field of interactive pharmaceutical marketing, industry news briefs, and useful information abstracted from subscriber discussion threads.

How well do pharmaceutical companies' privacy policies comply with best practices such as the FTC's Fair Information Practice principles? To determine this, an analysis was performed on the privacy policies of the 21 top selling prescription products worldwide (data from 2000). The results are presente in this article.

Even though spending on Internet promotion may be increasing now, it is still a miniscule portion of the overall promotional budget of a brand - about $14 million for online vs. over $600 million for TV and maybe $400 million or more for print.

In July 2001, URAC (aka American Accreditation HealthCare Commission) approved a set of standards for health Web site accreditation. These standards, which cover privacy, security, quality of information, fairness of transactions and professional conduct, borrow heavily from the e-Health Code of Ethics of the Internet Healthcare Coalition. There are thousands of health Web sites on the Internet. Accreditation is not an appropriate path for all these sites to take, but for those sites that can afford it and that meet rigorous standards for quality and accountability, accreditation can help distinguish them from their competitors and increase consumer trust. Pharmaceutical sites focusing on consumers, in particular, stand to benefit