2012

The Pros and Cons of Pharma Employees Editing Wikipedia Articles. Should pharmaceutical companies appoint employees as Wikipedia 'spokespeople' to perform all edits to Wikipedia articles on behalf of the company?

Although nearly two-thirds of respondents to a 2009/2010 Pharma Marketing News survey thought that using Twitter for patient support activities would be somewhat or very effective, relatively few pharmaceutical companies are doing this on a regular basis. From time to time, however, it does happen. Boehringer Ingelheim Shows How It's Done

Welcome to Volume 11, Issue #5 (31 MAY 2012) of Pharma Marketing News.

This article summarizes results of the 'Technology Impact on Healthcare' online survey. This article summarizes the survey results. The survey asked respondents to rate the importance internet tools and services in improving healthcare today and five years from now. Respondents also were asked to evaluate the impact of new technologies on public health problems such as obesity, vaccination, and smoking and which areas of the world are most active in developing and using health-related social media, mobile apps, and online communities. Finally, respondents were asked to identify which stakeholders -- government, technology companies, health-care professionals, patients, payors -- will be the major players online in 5 years.

Despite Pfizer's heroic and unprecedented effort to maintain Lipitor's market share after expiry last November and after spending more than $87 million promoting the medicine, the world's biggest drug company is quietly giving up on its once-great cash cow for good because more generic versions will soon be going on sale. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca promoted Crestor on its corporate blog. It's unusual for a pharmaceutical company to mention a product by brand name on its corporate blog. It's even more unusual to mention BOTH the product AND its indication -- because that would be promotion regulated by the FDA. But AstraZeneca has done just that on its 'AZ Health Connections' corporate blog. Why now? Can it be a purely opportunistic cheap shot?

FDA has received several comments from the pharmaceutical industry regarding the agency's 'Draft Guidance for Industry Direct-to-Consumer Television Advertisements.' This article reviews the comments submitted by PhRMA, Sanofi, and Shire. Comments from other pharma companies addressed similar issues to the ones reviewed here.

In this review of presentations made at the the PharmaMarketing Summit 2012, the common thread throughout is the evolving nature of the pharma-physician relationship, which is being transformed by the power of patients and payers, particularly aided and abetted by new emerging technologies.

On May 22, 2012, Pfizer and Eating Well Media Group, publisher of Eating Well magazine, announced the launch of Pfizer's Lipitor For You "Recipes 2 Go" mobile application, marking the first time Pfizer has released a consumer mobile app for a prescription product in the U.S. Was It a 'Bad Ad' or Just a Bad Idea?

Unless taken, medicines don't work. Lack of medication adherence is a major issue contributing to poor health outcomes and higher costs. HealthPrize Technologies believes it has at least part of the solution, which is to provide an innovative approach with an online and mobile-based program that is fun, engaging and educational. This article summarizes the results of a six-month asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pilot study in which HealthPrize partnered with RealAge to test patient engagement with the HealthPrize online and mobile platform.

'Just when we are overrun with the need for content & media strategies of every type from search to email to website to video to social to mobile, now we have the opportunity to contemplate an infographics strategy,' said Craig DeLarge, Director, Healthcare Professional Relationship Marketing at Novo Nordisk. Infographics have found a home on Pinterest, a content sharing, social media service that allows members to 'pin' images, videos and other objects to thematic pin boards.