2011

A conversation with Jacqueline Thong, co-founder and CEO of Ubiqi Health, about disease management mobile applications and how pharma marketers can leverage mobile health apps to engage with and learn from patients.

The authors of a physician survey published in the November 8, 2010, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine conclude 'given that 83.8% of physicians have PIRs, it is clear that industry still has substantial financial links with the nation's physicians. These findings support the ongoing need for a national system of disclosure of PIRs [Physician-Drug Industry Relationships].' Such a system is part of the Physician Sunshine Law, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2012 with public disclosure of payments scheduled to begin September, 2013.

Pharma marketers save a bundle repurposing videos for Youtube. They save even more money by hiring real patients to play themselves in these videos! Patients are natural method actors, having actually experienced what they portray. But they are prone to over emote!

Opening the Door to FDA-Compliant Branded Tweets: Deck.ly has enormous potential for pharmaceutical marketers who have been chaffing at the bit to post meaningful branded messages via Twitter but who have been stymied by lack of guidance from FDA regarding how to provide fair balance within the 140-character limit of Twitter.

In a recent blog post, PhRMA said 'Without Promotion Research will be Useless.' To support its case, PhRMA cited 'an interesting opinion editorial' in the latest edition of the Annals of Emergency Medicine -- the medical journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). In the op-ed, entitled 'Limiting Gifts, Harming Patients,' Emory University economist Paul Rubin, Ph.D. expressed concern that ACEP policy regarding Gifts to Emergency Physicians from Industry 'could have the unfortunate effect of limiting the exchange of critical information between medicine makers and physicians about the benefits and risks of new medicines, how to use them properly and how best to diagnose the right candidates for particular treatments.'

This is the last in a series of three articles highlighting points made by Kantar Health executives in a recent webinar titled, 'Getting It Right in the Emerging Markets: Identifying the opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls in conducting market research in new geographies.'

A study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers of 192 pharmaceutical advertisements (83 full unique advertisements) in biomedical journals found that only 18 percent (15) were compliant with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, and over half failed to quantify serious risks including death.

Let's look 'under the hoods' of two pharma-sponsored mobile apps and compare disclaimers. We'll compare Janssen's PASI calculator, which has an update disclaimer, with the new AFib Educator 2.0 app developed by Sanofi-Aventis.

This article reports the results of an informal Weber Shandwick survey regarding social media guidelines recently published by the British pharmaceutical industry regulators. It includes advice for how to innovate online without waiting for more specific guidelines from regulators.

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #5 (10 MARCH 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.