2011

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.'

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #1 (JANUARY 12, 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

This article summaries research data exploring why physicians interested in using online peer-to-peer social communities outnumber by 2 to 1 physicians who are actually using them. Includes suggestions for what these communities must do in order to provide more value to physicians.

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.?

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.

This article summarizes Eli Lilly's European experience using TeleWeb e-detailing, which combines a personal sales rep phone call with Web site surfing.

Social media occupied a good deal of our attention in 2010 and many of the pharma people Pharmaguy met and interacted with in 2010 are involved in social media campaigns in one way or another.

Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Issues Social Media Guidance for Pharma. The Brits have won the race to issue social media guidance for the drug industry! In April, 2011, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), which oversees the self-regulatory code of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), published 'informal guidance' providing the drug industry advice on how to use online communications.

Pharmaceutical marketers have jumped on the mobile application bandwagon as more and more companies roll out health-related applications for smartphones and touchpads such as Apple's iPhone and iPad. But will the FDA regulate certain smartphone apps as medical devices? This article discusses the regulatory and other issues associated with pharma developed or sponsored health apps.