2011

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!

A Search Ad Format That Has All FDA Could Want... But Pharma Can't Use It! Data suggest that Google's OneBox NIH Rx ads effectively reduce organic search visitation driven to pharma sites pushing the traffic to NIH content instead. Is it logical to conclude that Google stands to gain paid ad revenue when pharma marketers have to compete with OneBox ads by buying more paid search placements to make up for the loss of organic search visits?

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.

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.'

Why do pharma companies bother developing drugs for for a disorder affecting fewer than 200,000 people? Willie Sutton's ghost may have the answer.

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.

Every year without fail there are revelations about pharmaceutical companies behaving badly -- companies that have been charged with crimes such as making kickbacks to physicians, engaging in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, promoting products off label to physicians or companies that are called to testify before Congress about sub par manufacturing practices. 2010 seems to be unique in the number of companies behaving badly.

Pharma social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube may lack patient-centered information and can also be sources of misleading information that could potentially do more harm than good.

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #6 (30 MARCH 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

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.