2011

The year 2010 was all about me. By 'me' I mean Pharmaguy, which is the Twitter handle and Facebook name of John Mack, Editor and Publisher of Pharma Marketing News. It's all about YOU too! This is where you can 'sign' the 2010 Pharma Marketing Yearbook and and document that you were part of it all.

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!

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.

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.'

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.

An anonymous poster to CafePharma described what the

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

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

How many patients are needed these days to make a drug a billion dollar blockbuster? Less than you think. What are the implications for pharmaceutical marketing?

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.