2011

Public health officials cannot depend upon their noses to make important decisions. They need actionable real time data. How do they get it?

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.

Let's look 'under the hoods' of two pharma-sponsored mobile apps and compare disclaimers. We'll compare Janssen's PASI calculator, which has an update disclaimer, with the new AFib Educator 2.0 app developed by Sanofi-Aventis.

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.?

Peter Pitts, author of DrugWonks Blog, has put together 11

Pharma Marketing News is the monthly e-newsletter of the Pharma Marketing Network (www.pharma-mkting.com). It is packed with facts, opinions, and case studies based upon interviews with experts in the field of pharmaceutical marketing. Highlights of presentations from industry conferences, contact lists for experts consulted, and links to references help susbcribers keep up to date on best practices and network with their peers.

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.

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

A summary of the highly anticipated 2011 results of Kantar Health's annual Stakeholder Effectiveness survey, which revealed that over two-thirds of respondents from leading companies in the pharmaceutical sector think that customer retention is a key performance measure.

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.'