2011

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #11 (21 JUNE 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

The long-awaited social media guidance from the FDA -- whenever it arrives -- may turn out to be nothing more than a stamp of approval on activities in which the industry is currently engaged. Practically every issue that FDA guidance is expected to address has already been handled independently by a few pioneering pharmaceutical companies. Rather than waiting for FDA's anti climatic guidelines, Pharmaguy decided to publish The Pharmaguy Social Media Timeline™ now, at a time when the industry already has set precedents in every social media application.

No doubt you've heard that as of August 15, 2011, Facebook opened up comments on ALL pharma pages with some exceptions. That means that the pharmaceutical industry will no longer be able to shut off comments on their Facebook pages.

The pharmaceutical industry has been very generous in making payments to physicians. Last year (2010), for example, a mere dozen pharmaceutical companies paid $760 million to physicians and other health care providers for consulting, speaking, research and expenses. On average, how much do you think that comes to for every physician in the U.S.?

Guesstimating Total Pharma Web Ad Spending. Internet advertising revenue in the United States totaled $26.0 billion for the full year of 2010. How much of this was spent by pharma? Best guesstimate: $1 billion, which accounts for about 11% of the total pharma physician and consumer ad spend.

Allergan, Eli Lilly, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Novo, and Sanofi-Aventis filed a 'citizen petition' with the FDA, urging the agency to 'establish comprehensive, clear and binding regulations to guide the industry' in communicating off-label drug information to physicians and payers. Although the words 'Internet' and 'Social Media' are not mentioned in the petition, it is likely to hold up social media guidelines regarding 'unsolicited requests' that were promised as the first in a series of FDA guidelines.

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #8 (28 APRIL 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

Is Your Brand a Digital Genius or a Feeble-Minded Idiot? When it comes to digital IQ, some brands are geniuses and some are feeble-minded idiots, according to the 'L2 Digital IQ Index' for pharmaceutical brands, a first-of-its kind measurement of the digital competence of 51 pharma brands across eight therapeutic categories.

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #8 (28 APRIL 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

Looming Challenges Cloud Implementation. This article reviews the strategic implications of the Sunshine Act and also presents highlights of the draft regulations rule released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on December 15, 2011.