2011

David Epstein, head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, said eighty percent of his company's sales reps will give up their PCs for iPads in 2012. Will they do it?

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!

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

Boehringer-Ingelheim (BI) stands out in its attempt to stand out from the social(ist) cookie-cutter crowd of pharma FB pages. Shows what you can do with dedicated resources and creativity.

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

All pharma companies face a communications crisis that rests on the changing role of the medical sales representative. This evolution has a direct impact on the obligations of the pharma marketing organizations to be both proactive and responsive in helping to protect their organizations from the threat of non-compliance. What can marketing do? This article offers a few thoughts from a physician's point.

A discussion with Jonathan Richman, Group Director, Insights and Planning at Possible Worldwide about Facebook's changes to its commenting policies and his recommendations for pharma marketers who wish to develop Facebook pages.

A conversation with Casey Quinlan, 'Mighty Mouth' at Mighty Casey Media LLC, Zoe Dunn, Principal, Hale Advisors, Richard Meyer, Principal Consultant, Online Strategic Solutions, Jerry Hall, Digital Media Executive, Advisor to Pearescope, about engaging and marketing to women online, especially via social media, which some new media marketers claim is 'all about women.'

Patients also need more effective counseling about their medications. In an effort to make drug package inserts easier to read and understand -- and perhaps to save money on printing costs -- the FDA is planning to test single-page consumer information sheets that would replace the multi-page package inserts and medication guides widely used in retail pharmacies. However 'dumbed down' the label gets, it is still important that physicians and pharmacists take a more pro-active role in educating consumers about the drugs they are taking.

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.