2011

According to a recent CDC Data Brief, antidepressants were the third most common prescription drug taken by Americans of all ages in 2005–2008 and the most frequently used by persons aged 18–44 years. From 1988–1994 through 2005–2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased nearly 400%. Perhaps not so coincidentally, antidepressants are among the TOP advertised Rx category in 2010, according to the recent AdAge analysis.

Welcome to Volume 10, Issue #8 (28 APRIL 2011) of Pharma Marketing News.

A conversation with Monique Levy, VP Research at Manhattan Research, about the changing pharma eDetailing landscape. Ms. Levy discusses how the online pharma promotion landscape has changed, and which types of programs garner the largest audience as well as how the rep relationship is evolving and the role of new technologies such as tablets.

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.

This just in: FDA Won't Issue Specific Guidance for Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. Claims These Media Are Just Passing Fads! Now Back to Your Regularly-Scheduled TV Ad.

Were FDA's infamous 14 warning letters to pharma a ploy to force Google into a $500M DOJ settlement regarding illegal online pharmacy ads? In addition, could FDA have been holding back issuing pharma social media guidelines -- which would include guidelines for displayig compliant information in space-limited applications such as Twitter AND Google Adwords -- until Google settled its case with the DOJ?

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether drug companies have to pay their sales representatives for working overtime hours, a question that could have considerable financial impact on the industry. The question before the court in case CHRISTOPHER V. SMITHKLINE BEECHAM CORP is whether or not pharmaceutical sales representatives are exempt from overtime pay under the 'outside sales' exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. If the Supreme Court rules that pharma sales reps are NOT exempt, some sales reps worry that they will become

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.?

Should a PR firm or an interactive marketing agency be in charge of pharma social media campaigns?

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising spending suffered a 'double dip' recession between 2007 and 2010, according to data presented in the AdAge Insights Whitepaper